Search for 7 People Continues in Japan’s Noto Area; Elderly Woman, Junior High School Student among Those Missing after Record-Breaking Rains

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:22 JST, September 24, 2024

KANAZAWA — Self-Defense Force personnel, firefighters and others resumed search and rescue operations for seven people Tuesday morning in Ishikawa Prefecture, in the northern part of the Noto Peninsula, following record-breaking rain.

The missing include two people who very likely became caught up in the disaster caused by the heavy rain and five others who could not be contacted and whose safety remains uncertain.

Family members and others watched the operations on the third day after the disaster, knowing that the survival rate of people waiting to be rescued is said to fall sharply beyond the 72-hour mark after a disaster.

Search operations for Kazue Sadahiro, 79, began at 5 a.m. in the Oya district of Suzu, which was almost totally cut off from the outside.

The number of police and fire department members and others on the rescue team increased from around 50 to about 200 on Tuesday. They entered wooden houses that had been almost buried and removed mud, debris and furniture.

At least 10 people died in the district after the Noto Peninsula earthquake on New Year’s Day, mainly because of landslides.

“We want to work closely with the police and the SDF to rescue Sadahiro as quickly as possible,” said Takahiro Matsui, head of Toyama Prefecture’s emergency fire response team, who was directing the rescue efforts.

A rescue team of about 520 people also began searching for missing people in the Futegawa district of Wajima at around 7 a.m., where houses were swept away by flooded Tsukada River.

Their search, which stretched over 500 meters along the river, was the continuation of efforts begun the previous day. Police dogs also were used.

Heavy machinery was used to clear away piled-up wooden and other debris. Some places were too narrow to get heavy machinery to the site, so workers had to remove the debris manually.

Also in the Futegawa district, search operations for third-year junior high school student Hanon Kiso were carried out moving downstream from the location of her house. The last contact was had with the 14-year-old at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Kiso’s classmates and others watched over the operations.

“We all want to find her as soon as possible. We will continue the search,” a spokesperson for the Nagoya City Fire Department said.

According to the prefecture, six people died in Wajima and one in Suzu, while one person was missing in Suzu and another in Noto. Four people were unaccounted for in Wajima and one in Suzu.

Communities in 56 areas in 14 districts of Wajima, Suzu and Noto became cut off, and 632 people from the three municipalities were staying in evacuation centers. At least 3,500 households continued to suffer from power outages and more than 5,000 households were without water due to damaged water pipes or the loss of power.