The Yomiuri Shimbun
"Not again!" grumbled a resident of the Tohoku region.
Disaster-hit areas that had been on the way to reconstruction were rocked once again by a strong aftershock late Thursday night.
The tremor, measuring upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7, was one of the biggest aftershocks since the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake, and left at least three elderly people dead and more than 100 injured.
Across Tohoku, more than 4 million houses and other buildings experienced blackouts. The aftershock also left people in Sendai and other urban areas in the region without gas and water.
"We just had gas service restored," one local said, while another complained, "That's enough!"
A 79-year-old man of Higashi-Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, died in Thursday's powerful aftershock. According to Ishinomaki Red Cross Hospital in the prefecture, the man collapsed at home 10 minutes after the aftershock and his family tried to phone an ambulance, but had a hard time getting through to emergency services. Two hours later, the man was confirmed dead at the hospital.
The aftershock also rekindled fears of tsunami. At the gymnasium of Utatsu Middle School in Minami-Sanrikucho, Miyagi Prefecture, where about 300 people have taken shelter since the March 11 temblor, frightened evacuees waited until the tremor stopped, with some covering their bodies with blankets to protect them from falling objects and bulbs on the ceiling broken by the tremor.
Looking exhausted, Kenichi Kumagai, 66, said: "I was worried that a tsunami might strike again. We've had enough."
In Sendai, evacuee shelters and nursing facilities were damaged by Thursday's aftershock. One nursing home in the city's Wakabayashi Ward was flooded with ankle-high water that leaked from the ceiling. Forty-seven of the facility's elderly residents were evacuated to a nearby primary school being used as a shelter.
But life at the shelter has raised health concerns for the elderly. "Some [elderly nursing home residents] are accustomed to lying down, but they have to keep sitting [when at the shelter]. We're concerned about their physical condition," a senior official of the nursing home said.
===
Massive blackout hits region
Thursday night's tremor left people without power across a wide swath of the disaster zone. Teiko Sato, 75, lives near a shelter at Kirikiri Primary School. In Otsuchicho, Iwate Prefecture, which saw most of its central area devastated by last month's massive earthquake. "We were only able to start using electricity two days ago," she said. "We'd been pumping water using electricity as well. We're now back to the inconvenient life again. I wonder when we'll be able to take a bath at home."
On Friday morning, traffic signals were not operating in some parts of Sendai.
"Following the restoration of electricity and water, city gas was only back in service yesterday. But we've again lost that lifeline," said 33-year-old company employee Tomoko Sugawara, who was commuting to work.
At Iwate Prefectural Kamaishi Hospital, a private electric generator was activated when the blackout occurred. However, because of the device's limited power-generation capacity, the hospital is only able to utilize respirators and other life-support equipment. This forced it to accept only emergency patients on Friday.
According to an employee of the hospital's general affairs section, Thursday's aftershock cracked the facility's interior walls. "We'd like to quickly resume normal operations, but we have no idea when we can do that," he said.
In Akita Prefecture, 188 primary schools and 96 middle schools were closed Friday. In Onagawacho, Miyagi Prefecture, the board of education postponed entrance ceremonies at four public primary and middle schools as well as first-day-of-school ceremonies at five schools.
(Apr. 9, 2011)
No comments:
Post a Comment