TOKYO, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the powerful earthquake that struck Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture reached 36, while more than 9,200 residents remain in evacuation shelters, prefectural authorities said Saturday.
At a disaster response headquarters meeting held Saturday morning, Kumamoto Prefecture government officials said that the number of fatalities now stood at 36, remaining unchanged since Friday, while six people were in serious condition.
According to the prefecture, the number includes nine dead at Nippon Paper Industries Co.'s plant in Yatsushiro City where a smokestack collapsed and seven at an Aeon shopping mall in Kashima Town that was rocked by an explosion following the magnitude 7.1 tremor.
All search-and-rescue operations launched in response to requests have concluded within the prefecture, barring those at the shopping mall. A joint team of around 230 police officers has been searching for any people left behind, officials said.
The prefecture reported extensive damage to residential buildings, with 182 homes completely destroyed, 20 sustaining major damage, 225 partially destroyed, and 1,034 suffering minor damage. The extent of damage to another 82 buildings is still under investigation, bringing the total number of affected homes to 1,543.
Officials said that a total of 229 evacuation centers have been opened across the prefecture, sheltering 9,228 evacuees.
Around 6,000 households remain without electricity due to unrepaired service lines and other infrastructure damage, while water outages also persist, affecting approximately 72,000 households.
The Kyushu Shinkansen bullet train resumed service between Hakata and Kumamoto on Friday, but officials say it will be difficult to restart operations between Kumamoto and Shin-Minamata in August.
Meanwhile, the Japan Meteorological Agency has forecast continued extreme heat across Kumamoto Prefecture. Temperatures are expected to reach as high as 40 degrees Celsius on Monday, posing a serious risk to human health.
Governor Takashi Kimura said after the meeting that the prefecture plans to swiftly introduce additional portable air conditioners at shelters and encourage the relocation of evacuees to facilities equipped with air conditioning to reduce the risk of heat-related illness.
The powerful earthquake struck the southwestern prefecture at 4:27 p.m. local time Tuesday, registering a maximum of 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, a level at which people cannot remain standing or move without crawling and may be thrown through the air. ■
