Tokyo, 21 January, /AJMEDIA/
Twenty days after an earthquake struck Ishikawa Prefecture, eight cities and towns on the Noto Peninsula continue to be without water.
Water is still cut off in almost the entire area from Suzu City to Shiga Town, and approximately 50,000 homes in the prefecture are without water, NHK reported Saturday.
The death toll from the quake stands at 232, the majority (197) being in Suzu and Wajima cities. Twenty-two people are still unaccounted for.
On Saturday, a funeral was held in Anamizu for 10 members of one extended family. Naoyuki Teramoto, who lives in Kanazawa City, lost 10 people when his wife’s family home was caught in a landslide. The victims were his wife, four children, his parents-in-law and brother-in-law’s family. The group had been celebrating the new year together at the time of the disaster.
Another man whose wife and three children perished in the quake in Suzu City, has spoken to media for the first time.
Keisuke Oma, 42, lost his wife Haruka, 38, eldest daughter Yuka, 11, eldest son Taisuke, 9, and second son Minatosuke, 3, while they were at his wife’s family home. He told TV Asahi that when the house began to shake, he went outside by himself to check on the surroundings, but before he realized what was happening, a landslide engulfed the home, killing all inside.
Oma, who lives in Kanazawa City, says he often bursts into tears and sometimes thinks it would have been better to die with his family. He told TV Asahi he must go on “because for some reason I was given life.”
