KANAZAWA – The death toll from the powerful New Year’s Day earthquake that struck Ishikawa Prefecture and surrounding areas in central Japan has topped 200, the prefectural government said Tuesday.
Local police commenced a large-scale search operation Tuesday with around 100 personnel working at a gutted market in Wajima, where a major blaze broke out following the magnitude-7.6 quake.
More than 28,000 people were continuing to shelter in evacuation centers in Ishikawa Prefecture, with around a dozen reportedly infected with the coronavirus at three locations in the town of Shika and at least 3,300 people, mainly in Wajima and the adjacent city of Suzu, cut off due to severed roads.
More than 80 schools, including in Wajima and Suzu, were unable to hold classes due to damaged facilities.
At the Wajima market, around 200 buildings were destroyed in the fire that started on Jan. 1, according to the local municipal government and firefighters.
There were many wooden buildings in the over 1,000-year-old morning market that was popular with tourists.
Deaths from the quake, which registered a maximum 7 on the country’s seismic intensity scale, were concentrated in Wajima and Suzu, while the number of people unaccounted for has fluctuated due to conflicting information.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet approved the allocation of 4.74 billion yen ($33 million) from reserve funds in the fiscal 2023 budget to support the victims of the Noto Peninsula quake, including measures to help those affected to cope with the cold weather.
The government also plans to increase reserve funds earmarked in the draft budget for the fiscal year starting April from the current 500 billion yen, to fund disaster recovery efforts, according to Kishida.
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