Uncertainty ahead for quake-hit Japan peninsula

Wajima (Japan), Mar 27: Victims of a powerful weekend earthquake in central Japan that killed one person and destroyed hundreds of homes faced an uncertain future today, with few signs of when life would return to normal.

About 1,900 people spent a second night in evacuation centres as hundreds of aftershocks continued to jolt the area following Sunday's 6.9 magnitude quake, which struck the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, about 300 km west of Tokyo.

The tremor demolished 57 houses and seriously damaged more than 700 others, many of them old wooden structures with heavy tile roofs. More than 200 people were hurt, although most injuries were minor. Electric power was fully restored but some 8,700 homes still lacked running water, and troops and aid workers were distributing emergency supplies.

''My husband and I have spent two nights in an emergency shelter,'' said Kiyomi Tanabe, 66, whose home in the rural city of Wajima was almost completely destroyed.

''We are very tired,'' she said. ''We could not sleep well because we are afraid of aftershocks. We don't have any gas supply, and we don't have enough water at the shelter.'' Some people were taking shelter in their cars, domestic media reports said, something medical experts advise against because the cramped conditions can cause health problems including blood clots.

Elderly Struggle

Rain was forecast for the region in the evening, prompting fears of landslides.

Television showed elderly people being carried to shelters by rescue workers. More than a third of Wajima's 35,000 population is aged over 65.

Past severe quakes in Kobe and Niigata have proven particularly traumatic for the elderly, many of whom suffered from depression when they were forced to move into temporary housing because they were cut off from their local communities.

The peninsula's traditional lacquerware industry, one of its major tourist draws, was also surveying the damage two days after the quake.

''Lacquerware does not smash like ceramics when it falls, but it does suffer scratches and dents,'' said an official at a gallery run by an association of local lacquerware artists. ''I think about 10 per cent of our exhibits have been damaged.''

Reuters