The plight of the refugees on the Noto Peninsula in Japan needs to be improved urgently.
Hu Ruoyu. Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture ** said on the 10th that as of 9 a.m. that day, the death toll on the Noto Peninsula ** had increased to 203, and 68 people were still missing, including a baby.
Among them, Zhuzhou City reported the death of 6 evacuees the day before, which was the first "disaster-related death" in the disaster area. Noto Town, another hard-hit area, was later confirmed to have died at an evacuation site.
In Japan, people who survive natural disasters such as floods but die of illness or deterioration of their health while evacuating are called "disaster-related deaths." Noto Peninsula 1st occurred 7After Level 6**, the hardships of the evacuees in the disaster area have not been improved due to the slow restoration of water supply and power supply, the blockage of rescue, and snowfall.
Hisa Kondo, a doctor who commanded a medical rescue team in the disaster area, said in an online interview with the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK) TV on the evening of the 9th that many of the 131 temporary shelters in the hard-hit areas such as Wajima City, Zhuzhou City, and Nanao City were destroyed, with insufficient heating and exhausted staff, and it may be difficult to maintain operations.
Kondo said that because some of the shelter buildings are at risk of collapsing, people are huddled in small spaces waiting for support, many of them elderly, many of whom have been bedridden for years or suffer from Alzheimer's disease.
Ishikawa Prefecture has a high degree of aging. Taking Zhuzhou City as an example, the elderly over 65 years old account for 51 of the total population7%。On the one hand, this has increased the loss of people caused by secondary disasters, and on the other hand, it has led to a large number of houses with poor earthquake resistance due to lack of people and inability to repair.
In recent days, multiple cases of digestive and respiratory tract infections have been reported in the affected areas, with pathogens including noro, COVID and influenza viruses. Kondo said that the lack of water, food and heating for the evacuees could further affect them from the pandemic. "If this continues, the worst-case scenario is that a large number of people will die in the shelter. ”
According to Tokyo Broadcasting Corporation (TBS), Ishikawa Prefecture has begun to move evacuees to "secondary evacuation centers" such as hotels and inns in non-disaster-stricken areas of the prefecture in order to make evacuation life longer.
On the evening of the 9th, nine men and four women who had taken refuge at a junior high school in Wajima City boarded a bus and checked into a hotel in Kaga City. An elderly man said that the toilet used in the makeshift shelter was very troublesome and that he just wanted to get a good night's sleep.
Ishikawa Prefecture still has 2 at the moment60,000 people have been evacuated, while more than 3,100 others are in need of assistance. **Ten days after the incident, there are still nearly 5 days after the disaster70,000 households without water, 1460,000 households were without power, and mobile phone signals in Wajima City, Zhuzhou City and other places have not been fully restored. (End) (Special article by Xinhua News Agency).