THE BIG HOLE
MANY MISSING: LANDSLIDES, BUILDINGS COLLAPSED
Rescuers search for survivors from a house damaged by a landslide caused by an earthquake in Atsuma town, Hokkaido, northern Japan, yesterday.
22 000 rescue workers toil through the night searching for survivors.
Japanese rescue workers with bulldozers and sniffer dogs scrabbled through the mud yesterday to find survivors from a landslide that buried houses after a powerful earthquake, as the death toll rose to 20.
About 20 people are still unaccounted for in the small northern rural town of Atsuma, where a cluster of dwellings were wrecked when a hillside collapsed from the force of the 6.6-magnitude quake, causing deep brown scars in the landscape.
Atsuma resident Tenma Takimoto told local media that his 16-year-old sister, father and grandmother were caught in the landslide.
“It was my sister. She had a beautiful face,” Takimoto said after confirming her identity as the body was sent to a hospital.
“All I feel is regret, but we shared so many happy memories. I will live my life remembering that,” he told Hokkaido Cultural Broadcasting. “I’m still lucky she was found,” he added.
A member of the Self-Defence Forces in Atsuma told public broadcaster NHK rescue efforts were “difficult”.
“We’ve heard there are people still stuck under the mud, so we’ve been working around the clock,” the serviceman said.
“We will take measures to find them quickly.”
Some 22 000 rescue workers including troops handed out water supplies and long lines formed at petrol stations and supermarkets, as people stocked up fearing further quakes. –