ID :
172729
Sun, 04/03/2011 - 17:57
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Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/172729
The shortlink copeid
Intensive search enters last day, evacuees leave tsunami-hit areas
MINAMISANRIKU, Japan, April 3 Kyodo - Around 500 evacuees left the tsunami-ravaged town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture on Sunday as the Self-Defense Forces and other rescue workers continued their efforts on the final day of an intensive three-day joint search by Japan and the United States for missing people in Pacific coastal areas.
In a collective evacuation, the town office of Minamisanriku, one of the coastal communities hardest hit by the tsunami that followed the massive March 11 earthquake, sent the residents to other municipalities in Miyagi Prefecture.
A total of about 1,100 people have so far accepted the town's offer of evacuation among the around 9,400 residents taking shelter in local facilities -- more than half the town's prequake population of 17,666 as of Feb. 28.
Minamisanriku Mayor Jin Sato told the departing residents, ''We will certainly come and get you back as quickly as possible.'' He vowed to construct at least 1,000 units of temporary housing in the town.
Along with members of the police, the Japan Coast Guard and fire departments, around 18,000 SDF personnel and about 7,000 members of the U.S. military searched coastal areas and the mouths of major rivers using helicopters, ships and divers.
They recovered 12 bodies Sunday, bringing the total number of bodies found in the three days to 78, while 15,552 people had been reported missing by relatives to police in six prefectures as of 8 p.m. Sunday, according to the National Police Agency.
The death toll compiled by the agency stood at 12,087 in 12 prefectures, with 7,374 deaths in the hardest-hit Miyagi Prefecture, 3,540 in Iwate and 1,113 in Fukushima prefectures.
The SDF will continue with the search operation while the U.S. military plans to pull its forces from the area by mid-April, according to authorities.
Meanwhile, an 80-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy who were rescued from a demolished house in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 20, nine days after the quake hit the prefecture, have been discharged from the hospital they were taken to after the rescue, the boy's father said Sunday.
Akira Abe, 57, told a press conference that his son Jin and Jin's grandmother Sumi were released from the hospital on Friday and March 24, respectively, and are in ''good condition.''
The boy and his grandmother had been stranded at the house since the massive quake hit the area, and survived by eating yogurt and drinking water and coke stored in the refrigerator.
The Miyagi prefectural government said it will begin as early as Friday dumping around 35,000 tons of rotten marine products in the sea, or about half the roughly 70,000 tons left at damaged local ports, including in Ishinomaki and Kesennuma, where there is no power for refrigerators and freezers.
The dumping of the rotten products more than 90 kilometers offshore could violate the law to prevent marine pollution, but the central government has granted permission as the problem of rotten garbage cannot be solved otherwise, such as by burning, it said.
At Minamisanriku's Shizugawa Junior High School, which is accommodating more than 300 evacuees, a bus arrived shortly before 10 a.m. for the relocation and more than a dozen people were seen off by other evacuees with words of encouragement such as ''Take care'' and ''Good luck.''
''This is my limit for living without water or electricity,'' said Koichiro Ouchi, 75, who is being evacuated to Kurihara with his wife Fukuko. ''I want to come back someday for sure and rebuild the town.''
''I'm not prepared,'' the 77-year-old Fukuko said. ''I'm full of worries as it (Kurihara) is a strange land for me.''
Those evacuating gathered first at the Beachside Arena, the biggest of the 45 shelters in the town, and departed in the afternoon for the cities of Tome, Kurihara and Osaki and the town of Kami where the Minamisanriku town office has secured shelter for around 3,400 residents, officials said.
The town initially offered new shelter to 1,120 of the around 1,400 residents willing to evacuate collectively, placing priority on elderly people and the relocation of community units, but about 20 declined the offer of shelter as it did not meet their requirements, the officials said.
They said they plan to conduct a second survey of residents' requirements soon.
In a collective evacuation, the town office of Minamisanriku, one of the coastal communities hardest hit by the tsunami that followed the massive March 11 earthquake, sent the residents to other municipalities in Miyagi Prefecture.
A total of about 1,100 people have so far accepted the town's offer of evacuation among the around 9,400 residents taking shelter in local facilities -- more than half the town's prequake population of 17,666 as of Feb. 28.
Minamisanriku Mayor Jin Sato told the departing residents, ''We will certainly come and get you back as quickly as possible.'' He vowed to construct at least 1,000 units of temporary housing in the town.
Along with members of the police, the Japan Coast Guard and fire departments, around 18,000 SDF personnel and about 7,000 members of the U.S. military searched coastal areas and the mouths of major rivers using helicopters, ships and divers.
They recovered 12 bodies Sunday, bringing the total number of bodies found in the three days to 78, while 15,552 people had been reported missing by relatives to police in six prefectures as of 8 p.m. Sunday, according to the National Police Agency.
The death toll compiled by the agency stood at 12,087 in 12 prefectures, with 7,374 deaths in the hardest-hit Miyagi Prefecture, 3,540 in Iwate and 1,113 in Fukushima prefectures.
The SDF will continue with the search operation while the U.S. military plans to pull its forces from the area by mid-April, according to authorities.
Meanwhile, an 80-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy who were rescued from a demolished house in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, on March 20, nine days after the quake hit the prefecture, have been discharged from the hospital they were taken to after the rescue, the boy's father said Sunday.
Akira Abe, 57, told a press conference that his son Jin and Jin's grandmother Sumi were released from the hospital on Friday and March 24, respectively, and are in ''good condition.''
The boy and his grandmother had been stranded at the house since the massive quake hit the area, and survived by eating yogurt and drinking water and coke stored in the refrigerator.
The Miyagi prefectural government said it will begin as early as Friday dumping around 35,000 tons of rotten marine products in the sea, or about half the roughly 70,000 tons left at damaged local ports, including in Ishinomaki and Kesennuma, where there is no power for refrigerators and freezers.
The dumping of the rotten products more than 90 kilometers offshore could violate the law to prevent marine pollution, but the central government has granted permission as the problem of rotten garbage cannot be solved otherwise, such as by burning, it said.
At Minamisanriku's Shizugawa Junior High School, which is accommodating more than 300 evacuees, a bus arrived shortly before 10 a.m. for the relocation and more than a dozen people were seen off by other evacuees with words of encouragement such as ''Take care'' and ''Good luck.''
''This is my limit for living without water or electricity,'' said Koichiro Ouchi, 75, who is being evacuated to Kurihara with his wife Fukuko. ''I want to come back someday for sure and rebuild the town.''
''I'm not prepared,'' the 77-year-old Fukuko said. ''I'm full of worries as it (Kurihara) is a strange land for me.''
Those evacuating gathered first at the Beachside Arena, the biggest of the 45 shelters in the town, and departed in the afternoon for the cities of Tome, Kurihara and Osaki and the town of Kami where the Minamisanriku town office has secured shelter for around 3,400 residents, officials said.
The town initially offered new shelter to 1,120 of the around 1,400 residents willing to evacuate collectively, placing priority on elderly people and the relocation of community units, but about 20 declined the offer of shelter as it did not meet their requirements, the officials said.
They said they plan to conduct a second survey of residents' requirements soon.
