Kumamoto earthquake: Over 1,000 people still living in evacuation shelters
More than 1,000 people are still living in evacuation centers in Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture, three months after a magnitude-7.1 earthquake damaged tens of thousands of homes, as residents await temporary housing, Qazinform News Agency reports, citing Kyodo
The earthquake struck at around 4:27 p.m. on July 28. As of Monday, the death toll had reached 38, including 36 confirmed disaster-related deaths and two suspected cases. The total number of casualties stood at 420.
Evacuation centers remain open at 21 locations across seven cities and towns. Yatsushiro has the largest number of evacuees, with 579 people still living in shelters, accounting for more than half of the total. Another 263 people remain in shelters in Uki, 155 in Hikawa and 65 in Uto.
The earthquake damaged 82,223 homes, including 2,585 that were destroyed.
On Tuesday, Kumamoto Prefecture released a draft restoration and reconstruction plan aimed at helping residents rebuild their lives, including measures to provide temporary housing as quickly as possible.
The prefecture has developed a roadmap extending through fiscal 2028, focusing on restoring livelihoods and rebuilding social infrastructure.
The plan addresses challenges experienced during the disaster, including extreme heat and water outages that took a month to resolve. Proposed measures include revising evacuation shelter operating manuals, strengthening water supply and sewage systems, and expanding physical and mental health support for survivors.
It also incorporates new tsunami countermeasures amid concerns that a fault segment extending offshore near the earthquake’s epicenter did not rupture during the quake.
Earlier, it was reported that an earthquake measuring 4.9 in magnitude struck Afghanistan on October 27.