Japanese rescue workers and troops searched Saturday for the missing
for a third straight day in a northern hamlet buried by landslides from a
powerful earthquake. Power was restored to most households and
international flights resumed to the main airport serving the Hokkaido
region.
The Hokkaido government said Saturday that 30 people
are dead or presumed dead and nine remain missing. All but three of the
victims are in the town of Atsuma, where landslides crushed and buried
houses at the foot of steep forested hills that overlook rice fields.
Toyota Motor Corp. announced that it would suspend
nearly all its production in Japan on Monday. Toyota makes transmissions
and other parts in Hokkaido and also has suppliers on what is the
northernmost of Japan’s four main islands.
The magnitude 6.7 earthquake that struck about 3 a.m.
on Thursday knocked out power to the entire island of 5.4 million
people, swamped parts of a neighborhood in the main city of Sapporo in
deep mud and triggered destructive landslides.
Backhoes were removing some of the solidified mud to
clear a road in Kiyota ward on the eastern edge of Sapporo. In parts of
Kiyota, the earth gave way as it liquefied, tilting homes and leaving
manhole covers standing one meter (three feet) in the air. In parking
lots, cars were still stuck in mud that reached part way up their
wheels.
The return of electricity came as a huge relief for
residents. About half of Hokkaido got power back Friday, and all but
20,000 households had power Saturday morning.
“It was a relief that it was back yesterday evening,
but it feels it took time,” said 66-year-old Sapporo resident Tatsuo
Kimura, adding that the blackout was a reminder “of how important
electric power is in our life.”
Tourists from South Korea and China were able to head
home from New Chitose Airport, outside of Sapporo. About 1,600 people
spent the previous night at the airport, according to Japanese media
reports.
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