ID :
169275
Fri, 03/18/2011 - 19:23
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https://oananews.org//node/169275
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Moment of silence held for victims a week after quake, death toll nears 7,000
TOKYO, March 19 Kyodo - Evacuees, rescuers and officials in earthquake-ravaged areas of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures observed a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. Friday, exactly a week after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern and eastern Japan.
The death toll has reached 6,911, exceeding the toll of 6,434 in the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, the National Police Agency said. The death toll is a record high for an incident in Japan since the end of World War II in 1945.
The total number of dead and unaccounted for in the biggest natural catastrophe in postwar Japan reached 17,603. Of those who were traveling in northeastern Japan at the time of the quake, around 10 remain unaccounted for, the Japan Tourism Agency said.
Around 90,000 rescue workers, including police officers and Self-Defense Forces personnel, meanwhile, have reached about 26,000 survivors so far.
Vital infrastructure was gradually being restored in the affected areas, while the fate of tens of thousands of people remained unknown.
Damaged roads, airports and ports are being gradually repaired, with the Tohoku Expressway now open to emergency vehicles and Sendai Airport, which was submerged, open to airplanes and helicopters on relief missions.
But delivery of relief goods sent from around the nation to evacuees and survivors still remains difficult due to shortages of fuel and transport vehicles. Around 380,000 people are still staying at 2,100 shelters at a time when temperatures in the quake-hit areas remain at midwinter levels.
Scare fuel forced the Miyagi prefectural government to allow the burial of victims without cremation.
The government decided to disburse 5.4 billion yen from its reserve fund to cover fuel costs for the deployment of the SDF, which has been working to transfer relief supplies and gasoline to the devastated areas.
Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai called on quake survivors Friday to move to other prefectures, due to the difficulty of providing housing in the short term.
''Living conditions will improve if they move to other prefectures,'' he told reporters. ''It is a nonbinding request. I hope people affected by the quake will cooperate.''
The planned relocation would last about six months to a year until the construction of temporary housing is completed.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano also said at a press conference that the government is considering transferring survivors at evacuation centers in the Tohoku region to other areas.
The idea apparently reflects an assessment about the difficulty of reestablishing livelihoods in the devastated areas.
Meanwhile, the number of people evacuating from Fukushima Prefecture to nearby prefectures is increasing amid growing fears of a crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power station, which has been crippled since the massive earthquake.
A Kyodo News survey found that about 24,000 evacuees from the quake-struck region have already found shelter outside their native prefectures in 31 prefectures across the country and most of them are believed to be from Fukushima.
Parliament enacted a bill Friday to postpone local elections in the quake-hit areas, scheduled for April 10 and 24, for two to six months.
In Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, meanwhile, almost all stores on a shopping street near JR Sendai Station have reopened to provide food to residents, while convenience stores in Tome in the same prefecture have also resumed business as the electricity supply was restored.
Also on Friday, the Akita Shinkansen resumed services between Morioka and Akita stations, providing four round-trips a day. The bullet train service had been halted since the quake.
Meanwhile, 21 people died after being transferred to evacuation centers in Fukushima Prefecture from a hospital in accordance with the evacuation directive issued due to the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. They included elderly patients.
In the severely damaged coastal city of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, a woman in her 80s also died after evacuating.
It was also reported by the government that the quake and ensuing tsunami caused about 269 fires, destroyed 11,991 houses and damaged 1,232 sections of roads.
The death toll has reached 6,911, exceeding the toll of 6,434 in the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, the National Police Agency said. The death toll is a record high for an incident in Japan since the end of World War II in 1945.
The total number of dead and unaccounted for in the biggest natural catastrophe in postwar Japan reached 17,603. Of those who were traveling in northeastern Japan at the time of the quake, around 10 remain unaccounted for, the Japan Tourism Agency said.
Around 90,000 rescue workers, including police officers and Self-Defense Forces personnel, meanwhile, have reached about 26,000 survivors so far.
Vital infrastructure was gradually being restored in the affected areas, while the fate of tens of thousands of people remained unknown.
Damaged roads, airports and ports are being gradually repaired, with the Tohoku Expressway now open to emergency vehicles and Sendai Airport, which was submerged, open to airplanes and helicopters on relief missions.
But delivery of relief goods sent from around the nation to evacuees and survivors still remains difficult due to shortages of fuel and transport vehicles. Around 380,000 people are still staying at 2,100 shelters at a time when temperatures in the quake-hit areas remain at midwinter levels.
Scare fuel forced the Miyagi prefectural government to allow the burial of victims without cremation.
The government decided to disburse 5.4 billion yen from its reserve fund to cover fuel costs for the deployment of the SDF, which has been working to transfer relief supplies and gasoline to the devastated areas.
Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai called on quake survivors Friday to move to other prefectures, due to the difficulty of providing housing in the short term.
''Living conditions will improve if they move to other prefectures,'' he told reporters. ''It is a nonbinding request. I hope people affected by the quake will cooperate.''
The planned relocation would last about six months to a year until the construction of temporary housing is completed.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano also said at a press conference that the government is considering transferring survivors at evacuation centers in the Tohoku region to other areas.
The idea apparently reflects an assessment about the difficulty of reestablishing livelihoods in the devastated areas.
Meanwhile, the number of people evacuating from Fukushima Prefecture to nearby prefectures is increasing amid growing fears of a crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power station, which has been crippled since the massive earthquake.
A Kyodo News survey found that about 24,000 evacuees from the quake-struck region have already found shelter outside their native prefectures in 31 prefectures across the country and most of them are believed to be from Fukushima.
Parliament enacted a bill Friday to postpone local elections in the quake-hit areas, scheduled for April 10 and 24, for two to six months.
In Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, meanwhile, almost all stores on a shopping street near JR Sendai Station have reopened to provide food to residents, while convenience stores in Tome in the same prefecture have also resumed business as the electricity supply was restored.
Also on Friday, the Akita Shinkansen resumed services between Morioka and Akita stations, providing four round-trips a day. The bullet train service had been halted since the quake.
Meanwhile, 21 people died after being transferred to evacuation centers in Fukushima Prefecture from a hospital in accordance with the evacuation directive issued due to the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. They included elderly patients.
In the severely damaged coastal city of Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, a woman in her 80s also died after evacuating.
It was also reported by the government that the quake and ensuing tsunami caused about 269 fires, destroyed 11,991 houses and damaged 1,232 sections of roads.
