52 nursing homes in Miyagi, Iwate unable to operate after quake

TOKYO, April 30 Kyodo -
A total of 52 nursing homes in coastal areas of Iwate and Miyagi prefectures have become unable to operate due to damage caused by the March 11 massive earthquake and tsunami, local municipal officials said.
The disaster left a total of 438 people who were living there dead or missing. Experts say when reconstructing such facilities for the elderly, it is necessary to set them up somewhere on a hill to prevent damage from tsunami.
In Fukushima Prefecture, an area also hit by a nuclear accident as well as the natural calamities, at least two nursing homes in Minamisoma collapsed, causing at least four deaths, but details of the damage in the prefecture are still under investigation.
In Miyagi, 1,171 people lived as of February in 38 nursing homes which became out of service after the quake. Although it is unknown how many people stayed at the facilities when the quake occurred, 296 people, or about one-fourth of the residents as of February, have died or remain missing.
At the Riverside Shumpo in the city of Kesennuma, which was submerged by tsunami, 55 residents and two beneficiaries of its daytime services have died.
In Iwate, 142 residents at 14 nursing homes have died or are missing.
Such facilities' users who survived the disaster have been transferred to shelters and other facilities, but it has been difficult to offer sufficient care to them due partly to limited capacity of accommodation.
Yasuhiro Yuki, a Shukutoku University associate professor who is knowledgeable about nursing care issues and visited coastal areas of Miyagi Prefecture recently, said, ''It would be best to construct such facilities on high ground, but there is not much land in the coastal areas.''
''So it's necessary to consider strengthening dikes and making the facilities multistory as well,'' Yuki said.