Rain and landslides: New challenges for rescuers after earthquake kills at least 62 in Japan

Japanese rescuers struggled Wednesday to find survivors amid heavy rain and the risk of landslides. Earthquake At least that leaves 62 people died.

A 7.5 magnitude earthquake shook the province on January 1 IshikawaOn the main island HonshuMade waves TsunamiRoads were destroyed by fire.

The Noto Peninsula Many buildings were gutted and houses destroyed in the fire.

The regional government announced this Wednesday 62 people died In the earthquake and 300 people were injured20 of them are serious.

But the toll is feared to rise as workers search through rubble amid bad weather and aftershocks.

Further 31,800 people They were in shelters.

Prime Minister's Government Fumio Kishida He had planned to hold an emergency meeting Wednesday morning to discuss the response to the tragedy.

“It's a race against time,” Kishida insisted last night, according to the network, given the number of people trapped in the collapsed buildings. NHK.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a heavy rain warning for Noto, increasing the urgency of operations.

“Be aware of landslides through Wednesday night,” the agency said.

In a beach town SusuMayor Masuhiro Izumiya “Almost no houses are standing,” he said.

“90% of the houses (in the city) have been completely or totally destroyed. The situation is truly catastrophic,” the mayor declared, as quoted by the network TBS.

A woman in a shelter in the city Shiga I said TV Asahi That he could not sleep because of the earthquakes.

“I was scared because we didn't know when the next earthquake would hit,” he said.

Nearly 34,000 households in the province are still without electricity IshikawaAccording to the local energy company, many towns are without water.

Bullet trains and highways reopened after thousands of people were stranded, some for up to 24 hours.

The earthquake registered 7.5 on the Richter scale United States Geological SurveyJMA puts it at 7.6.

The Japanese agency was more specific than that 210 telluric movements It shook the area till Tuesday night

The earthquake triggered tsunami warnings, and caused waves of at least 1.2 meters to hit the city. WajimaBut the alarms were lifted on Tuesday.

Japan experiences hundreds of earthquakes each year, most of which cause no damage.

The number of earthquakes in the Noto Peninsula has grown steadily since 2018, according to a government report last year.

In 2011, the country experienced a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake that triggered a tsunami. 18,500 people died or missing.

It also affected the nuclear power plant FukushimaIt caused one of the world's worst nuclear disasters.

(AFP)