KUMAMOTO, Aug 4 — A week on from a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture in southwestern Japan, over 8,000 people remain in evacuation shelters as water outages persisted amid extreme heat today.
Kyodo News reported the prefectural government said that people were taking refuge in 150 evacuation shelters, with about 12,000 buildings estimated to have been damaged in the quake.
There has also been one suspected disaster-related death from heatstroke among people sleeping in cars, making life-saving measures urgent.
Following a visit to an evacuation shelter yesterday, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the government will designate the quake a "disaster of extreme severity," which will enable affected local governments to receive higher subsidies for reconstruction work and to take special measures to assist victims.
Many parts of the prefecture logged highs of 35°C or higher yesterday, with some areas reaching 40°C for the first time on record.
The death toll from the temblor that struck around 4.27pm on Tuesday (July 28) stands at 38, including seven who died in an explosion at an Aeon shopping mall in Kashima, and nine at Nippon Paper Industries Co.'s plant in Yatsushiro, where a chimney collapsed.
The number of people sleeping in cars has yet to be fully tallied and may be higher than estimated. Applications for secondary evacuation to hotels have begun, and construction of temporary housing has started in the hard-hit municipalities of Uki and Hikawa.
Water outages continue to affect about 45,000 households in five municipalities, with water trucks from across Japan operating in various areas. The national and prefectural governments are working to prevent heatstroke in shelters by strengthening the delivery of drinking water, expanding the provision of portable toilets, and using spot coolers.
The southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung has provided essential care supplies to Miyabien, a nursing home in Yatsushiro, after learning of the city's requests.
The facility's director Midori Tagata expressed her gratitude for the donation, saying that water outages throughout the city have made it difficult to maintain proper hygiene for residents.
The Kyushu Shinkansen Line bullet train remains suspended between Kumamoto and Kagoshima-chuo stations, with the Kyushu Expressway closed to general vehicles between the Matsubase and Ebino exits.
