Kumamoto Struggling to Deliver Aid to Home Evacuees

Uki, Kumamoto Pref., Aug. 18 (Jiji Press)--Local governments in Kumamoto Prefecture are struggling to deliver aid to those sheltering at their own or relatives' homes after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the southwestern Japan prefecture last month.

While evacuees at designated shelters can be easily identified, it is difficult to grasp the exact numbers of people staying outside such facilities or their living conditions. How to deliver relief supplies, health consultation services and other support adequately to such people is a big problem more than three weeks after the July 28 temblor.

As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, 3,050 people were staying at designated evacuation facilities in Kumamoto, according to the prefecture. A considerable number of evacuees are believed to be staying at their own or relatives' homes or in vehicles, but the exact numbers or their current situations remain unclear.

In the city of Uki, where a seismic intensity of 7, the highest level on Japan's scale, was registered, the house of a 94-year-old woman was severely damaged and judged unsafe to enter in a postquake emergency risk assessment.

Along with her first son, the woman is living in a vacant house in the neighborhood owned by a relative. But no hot water is available in the house, and water leaks from under the kitchen sink.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]