Rescuers continue to search for survivors in the rubble. But, four days after the powerful New Year earthquake in Japan, they unfortunately discovered many more dead than alive. This Friday, the toll stood at at least 94 dead and 460 injured. And around 222 people are still missing.
Two elderly women were able to be extracted alive from the rubble on Thursday. But hopes of finding other survivors are dwindling after the expiration the day before of the 72-hour deadline, considered crucial to saving lives after a natural disaster. Winter weather conditions, with snow expected on site on Sunday, further complicate the search.
A tremor felt all the way to Tokyo
The 7.5 magnitude quake that occurred on Monday at 4:10 p.m. local time (8:10 a.m. French time) was felt as far away as Tokyo, 300 kilometers away. It shook the Noto Peninsula, a thin strip of land that extends about a hundred kilometers into the Sea of Japan, collapsing buildings and devastating roads.
At least 460 people were injured in the earthquake and hundreds of aftershocks that followed, according to authorities in Ishikawa. A tsunami also hit the coast and waves more than a meter high swept away the quays, homes and seaside roads. Several hundred people whose homes were destroyed are still housed in centers. evacuation.
90,000 homes without electricity
“We are doing our best to carry out rescue operations in isolated villages (…). However, the reality is that their isolation has not been resolved as much as we would like,” Ishikawa Governor Hiroshi Hase agreed on Friday.
More than 26,000 homes were still without electricity on Friday in Ishikawa department. Around 90,000 homes did not have access to running water in this department as well as those of Toyama and Niigata, located further north on the coast of the Sea of Japan.
The ghost of the 2011 tsunami
This earthquake, with its numerous aftershocks, was described Thursday by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as the “most serious disaster” of Reiwa, the Japanese era which opened in 2019 with the accession to the throne of Japanese Emperor Naruhito . Located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Japan is one of the countries with the most frequent earthquakes.
The Japanese archipelago is haunted by the memory of the terrible 9.0 magnitude earthquake followed by a giant tsunami in March 2011 on its northeastern coasts, a disaster which left some 20,000 people dead or missing. This disaster also led to the Fukushima nuclear accident, the most serious since Chernobyl in 1986.