Around 11,400 people are still living at evacuation shelters in Ishikawa Prefecture two months after a massive earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula on New Year’s Day.
As of Thursday, the 7.6 magnitude quake, which registered up to the maximum seismic intensity of 7 on the Japanese scale, had resulted in the deaths of 241 people, 15 of whom died due to indirect causes. Seven people were still missing.
A total of 75,000 homes were damaged in the disaster.
While water outages have been gradually resolved in Ishikawa Prefecture, around 18,880 homes were still without running water, including 4,650 across the city of Suzu.
Some 790 homes were still suffering power outages, mainly in Suzu and the city of Wajima.
Around 29,200 people from in and outside Ishikawa Prefecture have registered as disaster relief volunteers. But only 5,426 actually worked in disaster-hit areas.
This is partly because working hours tend to be limited since many volunteers have to travel each day to and from the prefectural capital of Kanazawa, where they are staying.
In response to the problem, the Ishikawa Prefectural Government set up a lodging base for volunteers in the town of Anamizu on Monday.
Construction work has started for 3,522 temporary homes. Only 302 homes, however, were set to be completed by the end of February.
The prefectural government aims to start construction for 4,600 homes by the end of March.