JOIN USTide of bodies washed ashore
Millions of people were facing a fourth night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures in the devastated northeast. A Japanese police official said 1,000 washed up bodies were found scattered on Monday across the coastline of Miyagi prefecture. The discovery raised the official toll to about 2,800, but the Miyagi police chief has said that more than 10,000 people are estimated to have died in his province alone, which has a population of 2.3 million.
In one town in a neighbouring prefecture, the crematorium was unable to handle the crush of bodies being brought in for funerals.
“We have already begun cremations, but we can only handle 18 bodies a day. We are overwhelmed and are asking other cites to help us deal with bodies. We only have one crematorium in town,” Katsuhiko Abe, an official said in Soma.
In Japan, most people opt to cremate their dead, a process that, like burial, requires permission first from local authorities. But the government took the rare step on Monday of waiving that requirement to speed up funerals, said Health Ministry official Yukio Okuda.
“The current situation is so extraordinary, and it is very likely that crematoriums are running beyond capacity,” said Okuda. “This is an emergency measure. We want to help quake-hit people as much as we can.”
Friday’s double tragedy has caused unimaginable deprivation for people of this industrialised country—Asia’s richest—which has not seen such hardship since World War II. In many areas there is no running water, no power and four- to five-hour waits for gasoline. People are suppressing hunger with instant noodles or rice balls while dealing with the loss of loved ones and homes.
Food shortage
“People are surviving on little food and water. Things are simply not coming,” said Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture. He said authorities were receiving just 10 per cent of the food and other supplies they need. Body bags and coffins were running so short that the government may turn to foreign funeral homes for help, he said.
The pulverised coast has been hit by hundreds of aftershocks since Friday, the latest one a 6.2 magnitude quake that was followed by a new tsunami scare on Monday. As sirens wailed, soldiers abandoned their search operations and told residents of the devastated shoreline in Soma, the worst hit town in Fukushima prefecture, to run to higher ground.
They barked out orders: “Find high ground! Get out of here!” The warning turned out to be a false alarm.
Search efforts
Search parties arrived in Soma for the first time since Friday to dig out bodies. Ambulances stood by and body bags were laid out in an area cleared of debris, as firefighters used hand picks and chain saws to clear an indescribable jumble of broken timber, plastic sheets, roofs, sludge, twisted cars, tangled powerlines and household goods.
Helicopters buzzed overhead, surveying the destruction that spanned the horizon. Ships were flipped over near roads, a kilometre inland. Officials said one-third of the city of 38,000 people was flooded and thousands were missing.
The government has sent 100,000 troops to lead the aid effort. It has sent 120,000 blankets, 120,000 bottles of water and 110,000 litres of gasoline plus food to the affected areas. However, electricity will take days to restore.
Military personnel on helicopters returning to ships with the US 7th Fleet registered low-level of radioactive contamination Monday, but were cleared after a scrub-down.