Wajima
\nThe confirmed death toll from the New Year\u2019s Day earthquake in Japan reached 110 on Saturday as a search for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings entered a sixth day.
\nThe magnitude 7.6 quake struck the west coast, destroying infrastructure and snapping power links to 22,000 homes in the Hokuriku region. Rain hampered efforts to sift the rubble for survivors as more than 30,000 evacuees awaited aid.
\nThe number of confirmed dead was 110 by 4pm on Saturday, up from 94 the previous day, the Ishikawa government website showed. More than 200 people are still missing after the deadliest quake in nearly eight years.
\n\u201cI am keenly aware of the extent of the damage caused,\u201d Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said as the toll crossed 100.
\nThe figure is the highest since a toll of 276 in quakes in 2016 in the southwestern region of Kumamoto, a tally that includes related deaths.
\nKishida told government officials to speed up emergency efforts to restore trunk roads ripped up by the quake so that rescue and relief activities could be increased.
\nJapan\u2019s Self-Defence Forces are set to reinforce the number of rescue staff by 400 to 5,400, with road disruptions among the obstacles hindering the delivery of relief supplies.
\nMudslides, boulders and road cracks left dozens of remote communities in Ishikawa prefecture isolated. In Wajima\u2019s Fukamimachi district, helicopters from the Self-Defence Forces airlifted at least 14 residents to safety, according to a Reuters witness.
\nFreelance cameraman Masao Mochizuki, 73, stood in a long queue outside a supermarket in the regional city of Wajima after it re-opened on Thursday, waiting to buy necessities.
\n\u201cIt is such a help that they have managed to re-open,\u201d Mochizuki told Reuters after buying a box of heat patches, blue plastic sheets to cover broken windows and a pair of shoes to protect against glass shards that litter the floors of his home.
\n\u201cBut I don\u2019t see the road to reconstruction just yet,\u201d Mochizuki added, his voice cracking with emotion.<\/p>\n
Sleeping in Cars
\nWhile the displaced have packed Wajima\u2019s evacuation centres for food, water and other basics, some residents are opting to sleep in their cars.
\nThe Jan 1 quakes destroyed the wooden home of Yutaka Obayashi, 75, and wife Akiko, 73. But after a night spent in a makeshift evacuation spot in a community centre, they decided to go home and sleep in their tiny passenger vehicle.
\n\u201cPeople\u2019s eyes make me very nervous,\u201d Obayashi told Reuters, as his wife rested in a reclined seat in their car. \u201cI just don\u2019t like living with many people around me.\u201d
\nWeather officials warned of the chance of heavy snowfall in the region from late Sunday through early Monday, which could trigger secondary disasters, such as landslides.
\nSeismic rumbles continue, with an earthquake of intensity five on Japan\u2019s seismic scale in the town of Anamizu early on Saturday.
\nAyuko Noto, a priest at Wajima\u2019s Juzo shrine, whose history dates back 1,300 years, has also chosen to sleep in his car along with family members, even though their house withstood the quakes. That way they hope to protect themselves from further major quakes and possible tsunami waves.
\n\u201cAftershocks are still continuing,\u201d said Noto, 47. \u201cWe are choosing our car over our house so we can flee right away in case another major one strikes.\u201d
\nAsked how long they would continue doing that, she replied: \u201cI just don\u2019t have an answer to that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wajima The confirmed death toll from the New Year\u2019s Day earthquake in Japan reached 110 on Saturday as a search for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings entered a sixth day. The magnitude 7.6 quake struck the west coast, destroying infrastructure and snapping power links to 22,000 homes in the Hokuriku region. Rain hampered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-379217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n