Japan quake: Rain complicates rescue effort (Updated Sun.)

More than 40 people are known to have died in the two big earthquakes that hit southern Japan as rescuers were racing against the weather and the threat of more landslides.

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Sunday update

Rescuers race against landslides to reach Japan quake victims

Mashiki, Japan, April 17, 2016, AFP – Rescuers were racing against the weather and the threat of more landslides Sunday to reach people still trapped by two big earthquakes that hit southern Japan.

At last 41 people are known to have died in the double disaster, with at least six still missing – feared buried in shattered houses or under torrents of mud.

Heavy rain was lashing the area around Kumamoto, where officials have warned quake-loosened hillsides could be at risk of collapse as aftershocks continued to roil the ground.

The weather was also bringing further misery to those who survived Thursday's initial quake and the bigger, more powerful tremor that hit early Saturday.

In the badly-affected town of Mashiki, few of the traditional style wooden houses remained intact, and their occupants described the hardships of surviving in the destruction.

"I sleep in a car and stay in this tent during the day," Seiya Takamori, 52, told AFP, gesturing to a shelter made from a blue plastic tarp.

"In this area, we all knew there was an active fault running underneath the town of Mashiki, but no one really cared about it.

"We always said to each other that a big quake would hit at some point, but not really taking it seriously."

Neighbour Masanori Masuda, 59, was also fending off the weather in a makeshift tent.

He said many houses were in reasonable shape after the first tremor, but had suffered badly when the second quake struck, leaving occupants without basic necessities.

"I need batteries to charge my mobile phone. Also, I need a toilet. I am afraid of going into the battered house, but I cannot help it. I take a bucket of water with me and have to use the toilet in the house," he said.

The two quakes triggered enormous landslides that swept away homes, roads and railway lines, and reduced even modern buildings to rubble.

More than 90,000 people have been evacuated, including 300 from an area near a dam thought to be at risk of collapse.

Isolated villages in mountainous areas near the city of Kumamoto were completely cut off by landslides and damage to roads. At least 500 people were believed trapped in one settlement.

Aerial footage showed a bridge on a main trunk road had crashed onto the carriageway below it, its pillars felled.

The government said Saturday that there were "multiple locations where people have been buried alive" as it sent in 25,000 troops, firefighters, medics and other rescue personnel.

Around 400 aftershocks have rocked Kumamoto and other parts of central Kyushu, an area unaccustomed to the powerful quakes that regularly rattle other parts of Japan.

Thursday's initial quake affected older buildings and killed nine people, but Saturday's brought newer structures crashing down, including a municipal office in the city of Uto.

The combined death toll remained at 41 and six people are unaccounted for, local officials said Sunday.
Nearly 1,000 people have been hurt, 184 of them seriously.

Around 80,000 households were still without electricity, Kyushu Electric Power said, while about 320,000 homes were reportedly without water

Saturday evening update

AFP – Scores of people were feared buried alive Saturday after two powerful quakes hit southern Japan a day apart, killing at least 32 people, and as a forecast storm threatened more devastating landslides.

Homes, roads and railway lines were swept away when huge hillsides collapsed, as thousands of tonnes of mud was dislodged by the thunderous seismic tremors.

Buildings were reduced to rubble, including a university dormitory and apartment complexes, with dozens of people unaccounted for over a wide area.

"We are aware of multiple locations where people have been buried alive," chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference.

"Police, firefighters and Self Defense Force personnel are doing all they can to rescue them."

Around 70,000 people have been evacuated, including 300 from an area close to a dam thought to be at risk of collapse.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said rain was expected to hit Kumamoto from Saturday evening, and some areas would see heavy downpours on Sunday, raising the risk of further landslides in places where soil and rock has already been loosened.

Update 9:10

With daylight arriving, there are reports that the second earthquake has caused major damage and loss of life.  NHK is now reporting at least 11 people have died in the latest earthquake. There has been damage over a wide area, incuding fires, collapsed bridges and fears that a dam might break.

At least seven dead after new Japan earthquake

Mashiki, Japan, AFP – At least seven people died after a powerful earthquake hit southern Japan on Saturday, just over a day after another strong tremor in the same area, an official said as rescuers desperately searched for victims trapped in rubble.

Takayuki Matsushita, an official with Kumamoto prefecture on the quake-hit southern island of Kyushu, said seven were confirmed dead, citing police and fire departments. Public broadcaster NHK puts the number at nine.

The quake on the southwestern island of Kyushu sparked a fresh wave of destruction and was followed by a wave of aftershocks in the region where nerves are already frayed following Thursday's earthquake that killed nine people.

The powerful shaking triggered a huge landslide that swept away homes and cut off a highway in one area, and unlike the earlier quake which mostly affected old houses, larger buildings were damaged and some toppled across Kumamoto prefecture, the epicentre of the quakes.

Public broadcaster NHK said that at least 760 people were injured in the latest tremor, while a government spokesperson said scores were trapped or buried alive.

Eleven people were stuck in a damaged apartment building in Minami-Aso near the landslide, a Kumamoto prefecture official said.

"We don't know their condition," he said, declining to be named.

In nearby Kumamoto city, authorities were evacuating patients from a hospital over fears it could collapse and images showed the building slanted.

Hisako Ogata, 61, evacuated to a nearby park with her daughter, where some 50 other people sat on blue plastic sheets.

"We left my house as we could not stay due to continuous jolts," Ogata told AFP.

"It was so scary," she added. "Thank God we are still alive."

An AFP journalist in the city at the time said he was jolted awake by powerful shaking, which sent the television set in his hotel room crashing to the floor. Staff urged guests to evacuate.

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