Record Summer Heat Hits Kumamoto Quake Evacuees

Kumamoto, Aug. 3 (Jiji Press)--Temperatures reached 40.3 degrees Celsius in the city of Kumamoto on Monday, topping 40 degrees for the first time on record in the namesake southwestern Japan prefecture, adding to the plight of local residents hit by a powerful earthquake last Tuesday.

Elsewhere in the prefecture, temperatures hit 40.2 degrees in the city of Kikuchi and 39.8 degrees in the town of Kosa.

More than 8,500 people are still staying in evacuation shelters nearly a week after the earthquake, which registered up to 7, the highest level on Japan's seismic intensity scale. The prefectural government has started procedures for them to move to hotels and other lodging facilities.

According to the prefectural government, all affected people are eligible to relocate to these secondary evacuation facilities. The distribution of related leaflets at current evacuation centers began on Monday. Relocation is expected to start Tuesday at the earliest.

"We will make preparations so that evacuees can relocate as soon as possible," Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura told reporters Sunday.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]