Rescue workers fight against time to find survivors in Japan's quake hit regions

Rescue workers continue to fight against time Monday in a desperate attempt to locate those still unaccounted for in the wake of two powerful quakes and a number of fore and aftershocks rocking Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu and having claimed at least 42 lives.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has already upped the number of Self-Defense Force personnel involved in the search and rescue operations from an initial 15,000 to 25,000 and is mulling deploying 300 reservists to further assist in rescue operations.

The first major quake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck Kumamoto Prefecture at 9:26 p.m. on Thursday, and was categorized by Japan's Meteorological Agency (JMA)as a foreshock that was followed by a M7.3 quake that struck the region at 1:25 a.m. on Saturday.

Both quakes struck at a relatively shallow depth with the intensity on Japan's scale, which peaks at 7, being logged at the maximum 7 and upper six on the scale respectively.

In the village of Minamiaso, Kumamoto Prefecture, a women was found dead on Sunday, bringing the total number of fatalities to 42, with 33 of the deaths resulting from the quakes that struck on Saturday.

Around 2,000 rescue personnel comprising firefighters, police and SDF members continued to search through collapsed buildings and rubble in a desperate effort to locate 11 people still unaccounted for, as the vital 72-hour "window of life" has past since the first quake struck and has been reached since the second.

Abe said that he would accept an offer from the United States to provide airborne transportation and logistic support and four U.S. Marines' Ospreys tilt-rotor transportation aircraft have been transferred from a unit in Okinawa Prefecture and arrived at the Iwakuni base in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

The aircraft will transport personnel and supplies to some of the hardest-hit areas, the defense ministry here has said.

The commander of U.S. forces in Japan, Lieutenant General John Dolan, while expressing his deepest sympathies to all the affected by the disasters said that more resources would be made available at Japan's request.

Evacuation shelters and emergency accommodation in Kumamoto have quickly reached capacity and according to local media reports are struggling with food supplies due to major supply chain disruptions. Reports in the area said that shelves in convenience stores and local supermarkets are empty, but Farm Minister Hiroshi Moriyama said he will send food items including bread, rice and instant noodles as well as powdered milk to help alleviate the crisis.

He said his ministry, by Tuesday, will deliver 900,000 food items.

Local utilities said the power outages have improved, with 39,000 households currently without power from 400,000 homes previously affected by blackouts. 100,000 homes still have no gas and 25,000 homes still do not have direct access to water, prefectural officials have said.

Many Japanese manufacturers in the region have been forced to halt operations at their factories in Kumamoto and neighboring areas and more than 478 foreshocks or aftershocks were registered as being able to be felt by humans since Thursday, including two measuring 7 and three on the upper six of Japan's seismic scale.

Associate Professor Yuji Yagi of the University of Tsukuba and an expert in seismology said that horizontal shifts by as much as 2-meters along a 50-kilometer fault line caused Saturday's magnitude-7.3 temblor.

He said shifts were recorded of around 1.8 meters along the fault, which is about 50 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide, with the Earthquake Research Committee saying that the main quake was a result of the movement of a major fault line in the region called the Futagawa Fault.

According to Yagi seismic waves overlapping each other in the direction of horizontal shifts, increased the power of the quakes and thus the widespread damage they caused in Kumamoto and beyond.

The JMA is urging continued vigilance against quakes in Kumamoto and neighboring areas in southwestern Japan and has stated that seismic activity is continuing.

Gen Aoki, the head of the JMA's earthquake and tsunami monitoring section has said that in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures he has seen no signs of the quakes abating, adding that more houses and other buildings could collapse, and landslides could be triggered by quakes and inclement weather.

Kumamoto is well-known for its farm produce and numerous cultural sites and assets, including the famous Kumamoto Castle in Chuo Ward, whose stone walls and turrets have collapsed due to the quakes.

The castle is designated by the government as a special historic site and the original castle was build between the 16th and 17th centuries.

At Aso Shrine in the city of the same name in the quake-hit prefecture, the roofed gate and hall of worship, which are designated by the government as important cultural properties, also collapsed.

The Kumamoto region is a popular destination for overseas visitors to Japan for its cultural sites and numerous hot springs and accompanying resorts.

Source: XINHUA