Category: Berita Internasional

LOMBOK, INDONESIA (AFP, REUTERS, XINHUA) – Multiple earthquakes – including a powerful and shallow 6.9-magnitude tremor – struck Indonesia’s Lombok on Sunday (Aug 19), killing at least two people and sending fresh panic coursing through the already battered island.  

A series of quakes were recorded by seismologists throughout Sunday, the first measuring 6.3 shortly before midday which triggered landslides and sent people fleeing for cover.  

It was followed nearly 12 hours later by a late evening quake measuring 6.9 and at least five more significant aftershocks, according to the US Geological Survey.

The picturesque island is already reeling from two devastating quakes on July 29 and August 5 that killed nearly 500 people and made hundreds of thousands homeless. 

National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said two people were killed by the quake late Sunday evening, one in eastern Lombok and the other on the neighbouring island of Sumbawa. 

“Two people died… from falling debris and many houses collapsed because of the 7-magnitude earthquake,” he said on Twitter, giving a slightly higher local measurement for the largest quake.

Blackouts had hit much of Lombok, he added, posting pictures of cracked roads and video footage of a large fire that broke out in a village on Sumbawa.

A sleeping local resident said the powerful tremor jolted him awake.  “The earthquake was incredibly strong. Everything was shaking,” Agus Salim told AFP.

“We were all sleeping in an evacuation tent. I had just fallen asleep when suddenly it started to shake… Everyone ran into the street screaming and crying.” The area was hit by a power blackout, he added.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries from Sunday’s earlier tremor. 

“The earthquake caused people to panic and flee their houses,” national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told Metro TV after the tremor. 

He added that activity on the island was normal and landslides were reported in a national park where hundreds of hikers had been trapped on a volcano after a quake in late July, adding that Mount Rinjani was closed and there were no tourists there.

Local disaster mitigation agency spokesman Agung Pramuja said several houses and other structures in the district of Sembalun, on the slopes of Mount Rinjani, collapsed on Sunday after being damaged by the previous two quakes.

The structures included checkpoints once used by trekkers climbing the mountain, Pramuja said, adding that the exact number of damaged buildings was still being checked.

Residents said Sunday’s earlier earthquake was felt strongly in East Lombok.

East Lombok resident Augus Salim told AFP: “I was driving to deliver aid to evacuees when suddenly the electricity pole was swaying. I realised it was an earthquake.

“People started to scream and cry. They all ran to the street.”

The tremor was also felt in the island’s capital Mataram and on the neighbouring resort island of Bali.

“It was very strong. All the lights went out,” Asmaatul Husna told Reuters at a Mataram shopping mall where she works.

“Everybody ran outside their house. They’re all gathering in an open field, still terrified,” said Endri Susanto, a children rights activist in Mataram.

“People are traumatised by the previous earthquakes and aftershocks never seem to stop.”

The quake comes two weeks after a shallow 6.9-magnitude quake on Aug 5 levelled tens of thousands of homes, mosques and businesses across Lombok.

More than 480 people died and tens of thousands were injured.

The hardest hit region was in the north of the island. A week before that quake another tremor surged through the island and killed 17.

The Aug 5 quake left more than 350,000 displaced with many sleeping under tents or tarpaulins near their ruined homes or in evacuation shelters, while makeshift medical facilities were set up to treat the injured.

Badly damaged roads, particularly in the mountainous north of the island, have created a headache for relief agencies trying to distribute aid.

The economic toll of the quake – including its impact to buildings, infrastructure and productivity – has been estimated to be at least 5 trillion rupiah (S$470 million).

Dubbed “The Island of a Thousand Mosques”, Muslim-majority Lombok is a less popular destination than its neighbour Bali, the Hindu-majority island that forms the backbone of Indonesia’s US$19.4 billion tourist sector.

But Lombok had been earmarked as one of Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s “10 new Balis” with the regional government hoping to develop it into a major destination, especially in the booming halal tourism sector.

Indonesia, an archipelago of thousands of islands, sits on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and many of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

In 2004, a tsunami triggered by a 9.3-magnitude undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, in western Indonesia, killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

Five people have died on Lombok in a strong earthquake that set off a series of mudslides, cut power across the Indonesian island and destroyed buildings as the community tries to recover from quakes earlier this month that killed more than 450 people.

The shallow magnitude-6.9 quake that hit just after 10pm local time on Sunday was one of multiple powerful earthquakes in the northeast of the island that also caused landslides. It was preceded by a 6.3-magnitude quake in the afternoon and then followed by strong aftershocks.
Lombok earthquake leaves idyllic Gili islands facing uncertain future
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The quakes, in the Sembalun district on the north east of the island, caused panic, but many people were already staying in tents following the deadly quake in early August.

The national disaster mitigation agency said power was cut across the island, hampering efforts to assess the situation. Some houses and other buildings in Sembalun had collapsed, it said.

“People panicked and scattered,” said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. “Some people are hysterical because they feel earthquake aftershocks that are harder than before. They heard a roar that probably came from landslides in the hills and Mount Rinjani.”

Dwikorita Karnawatim, who heads Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency, said buildings that hadn’t collapsed so far suffered repeated stress, and authorities have urged people to avoid both the mountain’s slopes and weakened buildings.

The quake lasted five to 10 seconds and also was felt in the neighbouring islands of Bali and Sumbawa and as far away as East Java and Makassar in Sulawesi. Tourists and villagers in Bali ran out of buildings in panic.

The disaster agency said one person died from a heart attack during the biggest of the daytime quakes and nearly 100 houses near the epicenter were severely damaged.

A magnitude 7.0 quake that struck Lombok on 5 August killed 460 people, damaged tens of thousands of homes and displaced several hundred thousand people.

Mount Rinjani has been closed to visitors following a 29 July earthquake that killed 16 people, triggered landslides and stranded hundreds of tourists on the mountain.

Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago that straddles the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

source: theguardian.com

The 6.4 magnitude quake struck early on Sunday near Mount Rinjani on Lombok island, triggering landslides that cut off escape routes.

At least 16 people died and more than 330 were injured.

Rescue officials said many of the mostly foreign hikers were unlikely to reach the bottom before nightfall.

What is the situation on Mount Rinjani?

The national park authority said on Monday that a key route to the peak had been cleared and a helicopter was dropping supplies to hikers still on the slopes.

Rescue official Agus Hendra Sanjaya told AFP news agency that the hikers were believed to have enough supplies to last “another one to two days”.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, from the national disaster mitigation agency, said that when the quake struck there had been as many as 820 people on Mount Rinjani.

Among the foreigners climbing the volcano were 337 Thai tourists, with French, Dutch and Spanish making up the next-largest contingents.

The volcano, which rises 3,726m (12,224ft) above sea level and is the second-highest volcano in the country, is a favourite among sightseers.

What happened when the quake struck?

A Malaysian tourist on a hiking trip to Mount Rinjani was among those killed. Another young Indonesian hiker was also killed by falling rocks.

US tourist John Robyn Buenavista described seeing people pinned to the ground by fallen debris.

“At one point, I saw people with half of their bodies stuck in the rocks and I just couldn’t move. I felt paralysed and stopped moving. The guides were screaming, ‘Don’t die, don’t die’,” he told Reuters.

“One of the guides had to shake me and take me by the hand. He told me that I had to go, and that they would be OK.”

A group of Malaysian tourists, who have now reached safety, had earlier appealed for help on Facebook.

Rebecca Henschke, BBC Indonesian, Lombok

The only health centre in Sembalun at the foothills of Mount Rinjani was damaged in the earthquake, so tents have been set up to treat the injured until ambulances arrive to take them to the nearest hospital.

Indonesians are no strangers to earthquakes but the power of the latest one has put people on edge. After each aftershock people run out into the open.

Clouds are gathering over Mount Rinjani where rescue workers are slowly bringing down the remaining hikers via alternative routes not affected by landslides.

In the tents among the injured is a porter who rushed down the mountain when the earthquake struck and is being treated for dehydration.

Videos filmed by guides on mobile phones captured the terrifying moment when the quake hit with people yelling for everyone to come down.

Are earthquakes common in Indonesia?

Yes. Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because it lies on the Ring of Fire – the line of frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions that circles virtually the entire Pacific rim.

More than half of the world’s active volcanoes above sea level are part of the ring

source: bbc

The most compelling argument for the creation of a single and properly empowered agency or department for disaster management is the existing National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

The need for such congressional act has become imperative.

The NDRRMC’s nomenclature and unpronounceable acronym cries out for radical change. Its Filipino name, Pambansang Tanggapan Para sa Pagtugon sa Sakuna, is only slightly more comprehensible.

Created under Republic Act 10121 in 2010, the NDRRMC was envisioned as a coordinating group of various government, non-government, civil sector and private sector organizations. It is administered by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) under the Department of National Defense (DND). The Council utilizes the UN cluster approach to disaster management.

Conceived in this way – for coordination and as a cluster – the council will fundamentally be always engaged in a losing fight with emergency and disaster, especially those that demand timely and immediate intervention, relief, recovery and rehabilitation. No wonder, our government has been found helpless and inadequate by various natural disasters, including Supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan), flooding and earthquake disasters.

Given this history under successive administrations, we are consequently in agreement with the legislative proposal of President Rodrigo Duterte, in his third State of the Nation Address, that the Congress should create by law, as a matter of priority, a department for disaster management.

Specifically, the President told Congress, “To help safeguard the present and the future generations, we have to earnestly undertake initiatives to reduce our vulnerabilities to natural hazards and bolster our resilience to the impact of natural disasters and climate change.

“… We must learn from (our) experiences from Supertyphoon Yolanda and other mega disasters, and from global best practices. We need a truly empowered department characterized by a unity of command, science-based approach and full-time focus on natural hazards and disasters, and the wherewithal to take charge of the disaster risk reduction; preparedness and response; with better recovery and faster rehabilitation.”

“Hence, we, in the Cabinet, have approved for immediate endorsement to Congress the passage of a law creating the Department of Disaster Management … an inter-agency crafted and a high-priority measure aimed at genuinely strengthening our country’s capacity for [resilience]to natural disasters. I fervently appeal to Congress to pass this bill with utmost urgency. Our people’s safety requirements cannot wait.”

Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos has suggested, as a model for the proposed department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of the United States.

FEMA’s record is not all that sterling. It got caught with its pants down during the hurricane Katrina emergency in New Orleans and Louisiana. But it has been performing better since.

The crucial point, however, is that FEMA is solely devoted to disaster response and relief during times of emergency and crisis in America.

Our policy must take a similar thrust.

Twenty typhoons visit the Philippines every year, and we live under the ever-present threats of floods, earthquakes and droughts that ruin lives, infrastructure, homes and farm-based livelihood.

Our resiliency programs should be able to snap into place every time there is a disaster or emergency. That’s what a dedicated agency or department is all about.

source: http://www.manilatimes.net

A powerful storm slammed into central Japan on Sunday, bringing heavy rains as it churned across western areas already devastated by floods and landslides.

Typhoon Jongdari, packing winds of up to 180 kilometres (110 miles) an hour, made landfall at Ise in the Mie prefecture at around 1 am (1600 GMT Saturday), according to the nation’s meteorological agency.

It weakened after making landfall and was downgraded to a tropical storm, according to the agency, but many provinces stayed on alert.

“We have been on the emergency alert the whole time since the rain disaster” in early July, said Koji Kunitomi, a crisis management official at western Japan’s Okayama prefecture, referring to deadly rains earlier this month.

“Fortunately, so far, we haven’t seen new flooding,” he told AFP.

The storm, after unleashing torrential rain over eastern Japan, was moving further west mid-day Sunday, and authorities in western Japan urged tens of thousands of residents to evacuate before the rain intensifies.

TV footage showed high waves smashing onto rocks and seawalls on the coastline southwest of Tokyo, and trees buffeted by strong winds and heavy rain.

At least 19 people were injured across six prefectures, public broadcaster NHK said.

Rough waves shattered the window of an ocean-view restaurant at a hotel in the resort town of Atami, southwest of Tokyo, late Saturday.

“We didn’t expect this could happen… Waves gushed into the restaurant as the window glass broke but we are grateful that customers followed evacuation instructions,” an official at the hotel told AFP.

“Fortunately no one was seriously hurt,” she said, adding five people suffered cuts from broken glass as they fled.

The storm was moving across the western Chugoku region, where record rainfall in early this month unleashed flooding and landslides, killing around 220 people.

It was Japan’s worst weather-related disaster in decades, and thousands of the affected are still in temporary shelters or damaged homes.

The weather agency warned of heavy rain, landslides, strong winds and high waves, and urged people to consider early evacuation.

In Japan, evacuation orders are not mandatory and people often remain at home, only to become trapped later by rapidly rising water or sudden landslides.

Some critics said the orders in Chugoku were issued too late.

Japan is now in typhoon season, and is regularly struck by major storm systems during the summer and autumn.

(AFP)

‘unprecedented’ heatwave has killed at least 65 people in one week, with the weather agency now classifying the record-breaking weather as a ‘natural disaster’.

In the week to Sunday, at least 65 people died of heat stroke while 22,647 people were hospitalised, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said in a statement.

Both figures are ‘the worst ever for any week during summer’ since the agency began recording fatalities resulting from heat stroke in July 2008, a spokesman said.

‘We are observing unprecedented levels of heat in some areas,’ weather agency official Motoaki Takekawa said late Monday.

The heatwave ‘is fatal, and we recognise it as a natural disaster,’ he told reporters.

Eighty people in total have died from the heat since the beginning of July, and over 35,000 have been hospitalised. Many of the victims have been elderly people who were not using air conditioning.

Among those killed was a six-year-old school boy who lost consciousness while returning from a field trip.

‘As a record heatwave continues to blanket the country, urgent measures are required to protect the lives of schoolchildren,’ top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters today.

The government said it would supply funds to ensure all schools are equipped with air conditioners by next summer.

Less than half of Japan’s public schools have air conditioning, and the figure is only slightly higher at public kindergartens.

Suga said the government would also consider extending this year’s summer school holidays as the heatwave drags on. 

Temperatures reaching over 104F (40C) were registered for the first time in Tokyo’s metro area on Monday, where the government is promoting Uchimizu, a tradition where water is sprinkled onto the ground, as part of a summer heat awareness campaign.

It was marginally cooler on Tuesday, but temperatures remained well above normal in most of the country, and little relief is forecast. 

The agency warned that much of the country will continue baking in temperatures of 95F (35C) or higher until early August.

Officials have urged people to use air conditioning, drink sufficient water and rest often.

Japan’s summers are notoriously hot and humid, and hundreds of people die each year from heatstroke, particularly the elderly in the country’s ageing society.

The heatwave follows record rainfall that devastated parts of western and central Japan with floods and landslides that killed over 220 people.

And many people in the affected areas are still living in damaged homes or shelters and working outdoors on repairs, putting them at great risk.

The record-breaking weather has revived concerns about the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which will be held in two years time in July and August.

Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike this week promised that the heat would be given the same priority as measures to counter terrorism.

‘It’s just as important because the purpose is also to protect people’s lives,’ she told reporters, comparing Japan’s summer to ‘living in a sauna’.

Japan recorded its highest temperature ever on Monday as a deadly heatwave continued to grip a wide swath of the country and nearby South and North Korea. 

About 10 people have died in South Korea as a result of the heat. 

The mercury hit 106F (41.1C) in Kumagaya, a city in Saitama prefecture about 65 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. 

That broke the previous record of 105.8F (41C) in Ekawasaki on the island of Shikoku on August 12, 2013.

Two lingering high pressure systems have trapped warm and humid air above the region, bringing record high temperatures for nearly two weeks.  

Although the worst of the heatwave is expected to conclude this week, authorities have urged people to stay inside and use air conditioning.

Other steps include developing road pavements which emit less surface heat, setting up mist sprays and planting tall roadside trees.

Ms Koike also cited traditional ways of cooling in Japan, such as hanging straw screens and spraying water on road surfaces.

‘But our traditional wisdom is not enough to beat the heat like this,’ she acknowledged, ‘so we will be using cutting-edge technology.’

The 10 people who died in South Korea succumbed to heatstroke and other heat-related causes, seven of them last week, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.

About 1,040 people have fallen ill because of hot weather from May 20 to July 21, an increase of 61 per cent over the same period last year, it added.

South Korea’s highest-ever morning low was recorded in the city of Gangneung, where the temperature was 87.8F (31C) at 6.45am on Monday. The morning low in Seoul was 84.6F (29.2C), a record for the country’s capital, according to South Korea’s weather agency.

The mercury hit 103.8F (39.9C) in the south-eastern town of Hayang, the highest temperature in the country so far this year.

In North Korea, residents fanned themselves on crowded trolleys or protected themselves from the sun with parasols as temperatures in Pyongyang, the capital, reached 93.2F (34C). 

Weather reports said even higher temperatures were recorded on the country’s eastern coast.

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

It is wildfire season in Oregon, and the U.S. Forest Service warns this year could be especially significant for wildfires. Better Business Bureau Northwest + Pacific and the Oregon Office of Emergency Management are reminding consumers and businesses owners to do their part to be prepared in the event of a natural disaster. 

“A major disaster can pose significant challenges for individuals and families, as well as for local businesses” says Andrew Phelps, director at OEM. “Even a minor emergency can interfere with your ability to operate or require funding for repairs. There are steps you and your organization can take to be prepared, the most significant of which is to be 2 Weeks Ready.

While strangers will reach out to help others during a natural disaster, scammers make situations worse by trying to take advantage of victims. BBB reminds those affected by natural disasters to beware of out-of-town contractors soliciting businesses with ill intentions.

While they may not all be frauds, they may lack the proper licensing for your area, offer quick fixes or make big promises they can’t deliver. The con artists typically show up after a natural disaster offering to help with cleanup for a low cost. Be sure to research any company before doing business with them and never be pressured into making quick decisions when solicited by a contractor.

Remember, it’s just as important to be prepared before disaster strikes. Here are some steps you can take to get your home and business ready:

For consumers:

• Keep documents secure. Store your documents in a safe place that is easy to access such as a safe deposit box. This includes your Social Security card, birth certificate, passport and any other official, hard-to-replace documents. Documents not kept in a safe can land in the wrong hands.
• Have a plan. Familiarize yourself with your town’s emergency plans for shelter and evacuation. Have a list of emergency contacts, the locations frequented by family members and know the specific needs of household members, including animals.

For additional consumer preparedness information, visit the Individual Preparedness page on OEM’s website.

For businesses:

• Practice emergency drills. Businesses should practice drills with employees and have processes in place to account for employees in the event of a disaster.
• Lock up customers’ information. Remember to safeguard your customers’ privacy by protecting their data.  Lock up important papers or transfer them to the cloud to keep them safe and intact.

For additional business preparedness information, check out the Business Preparedness section on OEM’s website and complete a Preparedness Scorecard for Businesses. Get more scam tips at bbb.org/scamtips.

source: ktvz.com

Trump’s FEMA wasn’t ready for last year’s record-breaking hurricane season, and it wants the public to know that it’s not ready for another one.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was already supporting 692 federally declared disasters when hurricane season started last year. Then came the most destructive disaster season in U.S. history, causing $265 billion in damage and forcing more than a million Americans from their homes. FEMA was overwhelmed.
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So the agency has a novel suggestion for Americans as the 2018 disaster season heats up: Don’t rely on us.

In a report last week evaluating its response to last year’s disaster, FEMA details “how ill-prepared the agency was to manage a crisis outside the continental United States, like the one in Puerto Rico,” The New York Times reported. “And it urges communities in harm’s way not to count so heavily on FEMA in a future crisis.”

“The work of emergency management does not belong just to FEMA,” the agency stated near the end of the report. “It is the responsibility of the whole community, federal, [state, local, tribal and territorial governments], private sector partners, and private citizens to build collective capacity and prepare for the disasters we will inevitably face.”

The sentiment echoes President Donald Trump’s own comments about Puerto Rico last year, following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria.

Still, it’s probably good advice, because thousands of people who depended on FEMA for help last year are still struggling. They include 83-year-old Rosalea Nall, who lived in a hotel for eight months after her Texas home was flooded during Hurricane Harvey. Last week, she had to move back into her gutted house after FEMA stopped providing housing vouchers for Harvey victims. They also include the more than 1,700 Puerto Rican refugees of Hurricane Maria, currently living in hotels on the mainland, whose housing assistance is set to expire on July 23 (and which would have expired on June 30, but for the grace of a federal judge). Meanwhile, approximately 1,000 people in Puerto Rico remain without electricity.

FEMA acknowledged many of its failures in last week’s report—notably that it emptied emergency supplies from a Puerto Rico warehouse just days before Maria hit. (The supplies were sent to the U.S. Virgin Islands, then reeling from Hurricane Irma.)  As USA Today put it, the agency admitted its planning “was incomplete, did not adequately account for the possibility of multiple major disasters in a short amount of time, and underestimated the impact of ‘insufficiently maintained infrastructure’ in Puerto Rico.”

But FEMA also argued that an effective response was near-impossible given its resources. “FEMA entered the hurricane season with a [workforce] less than its target, resulting in staffing shortages across the incidents,” the report read. The agency has approximately 10,000 employees, but last year’s hurricanes and wildfires “collectively effected more than 47 million people—nearly 15 percent of the Nation’s population.”

Nearly 5 million households registered for FEMA assistance in 2017—more than the previous 10 years combined, and more than all who registered for assistance from hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Wilma, and Sandy combined. The wildfires in California were their own behemoth, requiring more federal response contracts than Hurricanes Harvey and Irma combined. FEMA’s response to Hurricane Maria was also “the longest sustained air mission of food and water delivery in FEMA history,” according to the report. Hurricane Irma was “one of the largest sheltering missions in U.S. history,” with 6.8 million people under evacuation order. Eighty percent of the households impacted by Hurricane Harvey did not have flood insurance, either, contributing to FEMA’s high costs.

FEMA thus was only able to pay for less than 10 percent of the destruction. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria caused a combined $265 billion in damages, according to the report. Yet as of April 30, FEMA had only obligated $21.2 billion toward those damages.

The agency offered several recommendations for improving FEMA’s capability for this year’s disaster season, which is already underway. It suggested, for example, “enhancements to the planning process” when collaborating with state and local governments before disasters. FEMA essentially echoed the message from its planning report in February: “The most important lesson from the challenging disasters of 2017 is that success is best delivered through a system that is Federally supported, state managed, and locally executed.”

FEMA is certainly correct that disasters must be managed at all levels, but the most important lesson of the 2017 disaster season is that weather disasters are becoming more frequent and more damaging. The government’s failure to grapple with that reality contributed to FEMA’s poor response. For example, the 1988 Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act—the law that gave FEMA its authority to coordinate disaster relief efforts—ensured that the agency could only re-build Puerto Rico’s weak electricity system after it was wiped out by Maria; it was not allowed to spend money on rebuilding a more resilient electricity system.

FEMA could have suggested a change in that law in its after-action report. And yet, just as the agency failed to mention climate change in its February report, it failed to do so in last week’s report. Extreme weather is getting more extreme, and until FEMA recognizes and acts on that reality, it will find itself overwhelmed indefinitely.

source: https://newrepublic.com

HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) — Hundreds of thousands of people in western Japan affected by devastating floods and landslides on Wednesday continued to struggle with water outages, while the death toll of the country’s worst rain-related disaster in decades climbed to 176 with scores more still missing.

At least 254,084 homes are still cut off from the water supply in Hiroshima, Ehime and Okayama, the prefectures hit hardest by last week’s torrential rains, according to the welfare ministry.

About 1,100 homes in other nine prefectures, including Osaka, Yamaguchi and Tokushima, are also without water and there are no prospects of the supply being restored, the ministry said.

Many of those who managed to evacuate have relied on water supplied by local municipalities and the Self-Defense Forces.

Fourteen cities and towns in Hiroshima Prefecture have been affected by water cut-offs following a number of mudslides that caused burst water pipes and power outages at distribution reservoirs.

In the city of Kure, where more than 10 people died, water was distributed at schools and other public facilities after a center managing the water supply was destroyed by mud and sand. The suspension has affected around 93,000 homes, most of the city’s residents.

Masakazu Furusho, 65, was one of many residents who came to a water distribution point at an elementary school in Kure.

“I have to go back and forth between my home and the school three times a day,” he said, adding he wants to know when the water system will be restored.

In Ehime Prefecture, water supply facilities were destroyed in nine municipalities, affecting some hospitals, with local officials saying they are yet to fully grasp the extent of the damage

Some municipalities in Okayama Prefecture, including Kurashiki and Takahashi, are still finding it difficult to supply drinkable water as purification plants were submerged by the flooding.

Susumu Nakano, the head of the Research Center for Management of Disaster and Environment at Tokushima University, said water facilities are often located close to rivers and they are vulnerable to floods.

“Compared to earthquakes, there are not enough measures,” he said. “It is necessary to make efforts on the assumption that there will be flooding.”

source: mainichi.jp