Rescue teams are working to reach the areas most affected by the powerful earthquake that hit central Japan on the first day of the year. They are already at least 48 deada slight bill that contrasts with the massive devastation and the force of the tremor. Another country without that solid construction or the greased evacuation protocols I would count the dead by hundreds or thousands.
“Rescue tasks are a battle against time. Those who are trapped in collapsed buildings must be rescued as soon as possible,” the prime minister urged this Tuesday morning. Fumio Kishida, with the liturgical blue jumpsuit of natural disasters. Some 1,200 victims are still waiting to be rescued, according to the government spokesperson, because the ruined infrastructure and services are hampering efforts. Many trains and flights have been suspended and at the Noto airport, with the Cracked access roads and runwaysabout 500 travelers have been trapped.
It is not easy to reach the northern peak of the peninsula I noticein the prefecture of Ishikawa. Tokyo is now sending aid by air and sea because roads and bridges have been destroyed. Images from the helicopter still show numerous fires and partially damaged buildings. Some 45,000 houses were still Without eleectricity this Tuesday in Ishikawa after a night of freezing temperatures, according to the supply company. Running water has also not been restored in several areas. Another problem is the replica chaining that happens to any large earthquake. The Japan Meteorological Agency has already counted some 200most above three degrees on the Richter scale.
More than a thousand soldiers
Thousands of firefighters and police from all over the country have been deployed to the Noto peninsula. More than a thousand soldiers have already joined the mission and, according to the Minister of Defense, they could reach 10,000 in the coming days. Wajima, the urban center closest to the epicenter, concentrates a third of the victims. Its market, where tourists come to buy crafts, has been left in ruins.
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The earthquake occurred on Monday afternoon 30 kilometers from Wajima and 16 kilometers below the earth’s surface. The Japan Meteorological Agency has calculated its strength in 7.6 degrees. The tremor caused the immediate tsunami warning at its maximum degree and the races of the neighbors to the highest areas. About 100,000 people spent the night in gyms, pavilions and other facilities that authorities previously identified as crisis shelters. The alert was lifted this Tuesday morning after waves of just over one meter were recorded on the coast in the previous hours.
The fear during the moments after the tremor was understandable. The activity of tectonic plates beneath Japan generates fatal earthquakes. In 2016, 220 people died in Kumamoto, but no tragedy is as stapled in the collective memory as that of March 2011: a 9-degree earthquake in the deep sea off the eastern coast, the immediate tsunami of gigantic waves that left 20,000 dead and the final ruin of the nuclear power plant Fukushima. Japan turned off all the reactors after that crisis, the most disturbing since Chernobyl, and the Government promised a horizon without nuclear energy. The energy emergencies and the return of the conservatives to the Government distorted the plan. Tokyo has approved the gradual return of the plants in the face of popular rejection and last week gave the green light to reconnect the largest plant in the world, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. The one closest to Monday’s quake plans to end its post-Fukushima retirement in 2026. Authorities have promised there have been no leaks this time.