Over 7,500 in Shelters 1 Week after Kumamoto Quake

Kumamoto, Aug. 4 (Jiji Press)--More than 7,500 people remained at evacuation shelters in Kumamoto Prefecture as of Tuesday, a week after the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that damaged over 13,000 residential buildings in the southwestern Japan prefecture.

Daytime temperatures exceed 35 degrees Celsius in hot summer weather in the prefecture, raising health concerns for evacuees and others affected by the July 28 quake, which registered up to 7, the highest level on Japan's seismic intensity scale.

According to the Kumamoto prefectural government's disaster response headquarters, the death toll from the earthquake stood at 38 as of 6 p.m. Tuesday. Of the total, one person is believed to have died from heatstroke, and the case is suspected to be a death linked to the disaster because the individual was staying in a vehicle after evacuating. The cause of another death is being investigated.

Seven people died in an explosion that occurred at the Aeon Mall Kumamoto shopping facility in the town of Kashima shortly after the temblor, while nine lost their lives at Nippon Paper Industries Co.'s plant in the city of Yatsushiro, where a chimney collapsed due to the quake.

A total of 7,538 people were staying at 140 evacuation centers as of 6 p.m. Tuesday, decreasing from the peak number of 10,467 at 415 shelters on Thursday, two days after the quake struck. Still, the number of evacuees staying in their cars or self-evacuating outside official shelters was not accounted for.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]