Toll in Japan quake, landslides rises to 30
SAPPORO, Japan — Japanese rescue workers and troops are searching for the missing for a third straight day in a northern hamlet buried by landslides from a powerful earthquake.
The government of Hokkaido island said today that 30 people are dead or presumed dead and nine remain missing. Electricity has been restored to nearly all households and international flights resumed at Hokkaido’s main airport.
Rescuers were using search dogs, backhoes and shovels as they dug through tons of mud and debris from the landslides triggered by the magnitude-6.7 quake that struck before dawn Thursday. The earthquake knocked out power to the entire island of 5.4 million people, swamped parts of a neighborhood in the main city of Sapporo in deep mud and triggered destructive landslides.
Most of the victims are in the town of Atsuma, where landslides crushed and buried houses at the foot of steep forested hills that overlook rice fields.
After more than a day of digging, there were no reports of survivors being pulled from their crushed homes on the outskirts of the town, not far from the quake’s epicenter.
In Sapporo, lights and water were restored to many areas. Bullet train services resumed and the city’s airport at Chitose reopened.
Some parts of the city were severely damaged, with houses atilt and roads crumbled or sunken.
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko said it would take at least a week to fully restore power to all communities because of damage at a thermal power plant at Tomato-Atsuma that supplies half of Hokkaido’s electricity.