Death Toll Japan Quake Reaches 100
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
TOKYO (Worthy News) – The death toll from a major earthquake in western Japan reached 100 Saturday, as rescue workers fought aftershocks to pull people from the rubble carefully, officials said.
Deaths had reached 98 earlier in the day, but two more deaths were reported in Anamizu, while officials in Ishikawa prefecture, the hardest-hit region after the main New Year’s Day quake.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said earlier that 295 people had been rescued while calling on responders to keep searching for many still missing, noticing that a woman in her 80s was still rescued after 72 hours.
The number of missing was lowered to 211 as of Saturday after it shot up two days ago.
An older man was found alive Wednesday in a collapsed home in Suzu, one of the hardest-hit cities in Ishikawa Prefecture, officials said.
His daughter reportedly called out, “Dad, dad,” as a flock of firefighters got him out on a stretcher, praising him for holding on for so long after Monday’s earthquake.
Space photos showed Japan’s 7.6-magnitude earthquake lifted land from the sea, extending parts of its coastline by as much as two football fields.
Severed roads and the remote nature of the worst-affected areas have complicated the rescue mission after the strongest quake in the region in over a century.
The Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture has reportedly experienced nearly 600 aftershocks since the initial quake, increasing concerns about potential more damage to infrastructure.
The tragedy highlighted that Japan, a nation accustomed to the tremors and movements of the Earth, is in a precarious position atop four converging tectonic plates.
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