NAGAOKA, Japan – Yet another strong earthquake hit northern Japan today, hours after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi traveled to the area to inspect collapsed homes and speak to survivors of a series of weekend temblors.
The death toll rose to 31 as elderly victims died from the effects of the weekend quake, the deadliest to hit the island nation in nearly a decade.
Aftershocks had rumbled across largely rural Niigata prefecture, about 160 miles northwest of Tokyo, where a magnitude-6.8 earthquake struck Saturday evening, buckling roads and unleashing landslides.
The magnitude-6.0 temblor that hit the area today caused no injuries or damage, according to first reports.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake was centered at a depth of six miles in Hirokami, also about 150 miles northwest of Tokyo. The agency said there was no danger of tsunami waves.
The quake was so strong that people in temporary shelters had difficulty standing, national broadcaster NHK reported. Buildings swayed in the Japanese capital.
Another 5,000 residents had entered public shelters amid fears the aftershocks would trigger more landslides, raising the total of evacuated people to more than 103,000. Thousands more camped out in tents and cars, too afraid to return home.
As of Tuesday evening, 28,500 households lacked electricity and 45,000 did not have running water.
In Ojiya, one of the most severely hit towns, Koizumi stopped to look at a wooden home the quake had reduced to a pile of debris as an official explained the building was once two stories tall.
Asked if he would be willing to issue bonds to pay for reconstruction costs, Koizumi said he would “take measures for necessary funds,” but he avoided discussing specifics.
A 91-year-old man died from post-traumatic shock at a hospital in the town of Koide on Tuesday. An 81-year-old man from nearby Ojiya died from a stroke. Three others died from various earthquake-induced problems, raising the death toll to 31.
A steady drizzle forecast to last through today and temperatures expected to drop to freezing overnight added to the woes.
Recovery efforts moved forward in some areas. The Hokuriku highway, a major thoroughfare running through Nagaoka, reopened late Tuesday after being repaired.
The Niigata government launched plans to build temporary homes in Nagaoka by year’s end for those who lost their homes, said Nobuyuki Kondo of Nagaoka city hall.
The housing should accommodate 2,200 people from the nearby village of Yamakoshi, which was almost completely wiped out in the quake, as well as thousands left homeless in Nagaoka, Kondo said.
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