Japan earthquake deaths top 100, with hundreds missing

Wajima, Japan: Japan's death toll from the New Year's Day earthquake reached 110 on Saturday as a search for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings entered a sixth day, with more than 200 still missing after the deadliest quake in nearly eight years.

The quake of magnitude 7.6 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. The number of confirmed dead stood at 110 by 4 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Saturday, up from 94 the previous day, the Ishikawa government website showed.

"I am keenly aware of the extent of the damage caused," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said as the toll crossed 100.

The 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.

Kishida told government officials to speed emergency efforts to restore trunk roads ripped up by the quake so that regular activities can resume.

Road disruptions are among the obstacles hindering delivery of relief supplies.

Freelance cameraman Masao Mochizuki, 73, stood in a long queue outside a supermarket after it re-opened on Thursday in the regional city of Wajima, waiting to buy necessities.

"It is such a help that they have managed to re-open," 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 his floors at home.

"But I don't see the road to reconstruction just yet," Mochizuki added, his voice cracking with emotion.

Sleeping in car

While the displaced have packed Wajima's evacuation centres for food, water and other basics, some residents are opting to sleep in their cars instead.

The 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.

"People's eyes make me very nervous," Obayashi told Reuters, as his wife took a rest in a reclined seat in their car. "I just don't like living with many people around me."

Weather 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.

Seismic rumbles continue, with an earthquake of intensity 5 on Japan's seismic scale in the town of Anamizu early on Saturday.

Ayuko Noto, a priest at Wajima's Juzo shrine, whose history dates back 1,300 years, has also chosen, along with family members, to sleep in their car at night, even though their house withstood the quakes.

That way they hope to protect themselves from further major quakes and possible tsunami waves.

"Aftershocks are still continuing," said Noto, 47. "We are choosing our car over our house so we can flee right away in case another major one strikes."

Asked how long they would continue doing that, she replied: "I just don't have an answer to that."