Over 1,500 Still in Shelters 2 Months after Kumamoto Quake

Kumamoto, Sept. 28 (Jiji Press)--More than 1,500 people are still staying in evacuation centers two months after the July 28 earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, that killed 38 people including those who died from suspected indirect causes.

Meanwhile, some progress has been made toward reconstruction as evacuees started to move into temporary housing and the Kyushu Shinkansen bullet train line was fully reopened.

As of Friday, 1,514 people were staying in shelters at 32 locations in the prefecture, according to the prefectural government.

The quake, whose maximum seismic intensity reached 7, the highest level on the Japanese scale, caused damage to 71,518 residential buildings, with 9,540 of them completely or partially destroyed.

The assessment of damage was not over for 10,663 buildings. Only 776 cases of publicly financed demolition of damaged housing had been approved.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]