Japan. “Race against time” after disasters. “Access to the northern part of the peninsula is extremely difficult”

In the city of Toyama in central Japan, on Monday, around 8 a.m. Polish time, the earth shook. The tremors had a magnitude of 7.6, and their real strength can be seen in many recordings available on the Internet. – The whole room was shaking, the TV was shaking. I had to hold everything. I felt safe in my room, but everything was shaking, reports Baldwin Chia, a tourist from Shanghai.

The Noto peninsula suffered the most from the tremors, but the earthquake was not the only disaster this place faced on Monday. Just over 10 minutes after the first tremors, tsunami waves hit the peninsula, which also threatened South Korea, North Korea and even Russia. – We are observing a large tsunami. People near the coastline and rivers are asked to evacuate to higher ground, said Toshihiro Shimoyama of the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Read more: “The situation is catastrophic”, “many people are waiting for help under collapsed buildings”

On Tuesday, all tsunami warnings along parts of Japan’s west coast were lifted and search and medical teams rushed to the affected areas, but the rescue operation is not easy.

– We are making every effort to collect the necessary information, but blocked roads mean that access to the northern part of the Noto Peninsula is extremely difficult – said Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan.

Although the Japanese Self-Defense Forces joined over 1,000 rescuers, policemen and firefighters, cracked roads, destroyed buildings and rubble effectively hampered the rescue operation. – It was a large earthquake, and a shallow one at that, which is why we see so many destroyed houses, buildings and roads – explains Dr. Ellen Prager of StormCenter Communications.

On Monday, the Japanese government ordered the evacuation of nearly 100,000 people who were temporarily accommodated, among others, in sports halls. Some of them – after the tsunami threat was lifted – returned to their homes, but others – especially the inhabitants of Wajima, which was practically at the epicenter of the quake – have nothing to return to. After the tremors and waves, a fire broke out in the city, and the fire destroyed over a hundred buildings there. There are still people under the rubble of destroyed houses.

– Saving earthquake victims is a race against time, says the Japanese prime minister.

As of Tuesday, more than 45,000 households in Ishikawa province were still without electricity, and many towns also had no running water. In Japan, many train services and ferry services were suspended, and some flights were canceled due to broken runways. Authorities in Tokyo reassure: nuclear power plants near the affected areas are operating without any problems.

– Starting with the Shika power plant, closest to the epicenter, there have been no reported irregularities in the operation of nuclear power plants – assures Yoshimasa Hayashi, a spokesman for the Japanese government.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, about 200 aftershocks have already been recorded in the country since Monday, and experts warn that the ground there could continue to shake for several months or even longer. – Later aftershocks could cause even more damage. The immediate concern is for a few days, but significant aftershocks could occur there in the coming months or even a year, notes Jeffrey Park of Yale University.

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Earthquakes are not uncommon in Japan – about 1,500 such phenomena occur there every year. Nearly 13 years ago, a powerful earthquake and later a tsunami led to a failure at the Fukushima nuclear power plant – a disaster whose effects are still felt today. – Now we have had the first serious tsunami alert since the earthquake in the Pacific Ocean on March 11, 2011 – points out Toshihiro Shimoyama from the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Japanese authorities are still assessing the damage and working to determine the extent of damage from Monday’s disaster. However, it is already known that they are far from the damage caused by the 9-magnitude earthquake in 2011. Almost 16,000 people died then.