By South China Morning Post | Created at 2026-07-30 03:55:30 | Updated at 2026-08-06 12:05:15
1 week ago
The 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck southern
Japan toppled houses and split open streets in the small city of Yatsushiro, but town official Akio Matsushita is most worried about the invisible threats from the lack of water and power amid the punishing summer heat.
Many of the port city’s roughly 58,000 households were still without running water or power on Thursday, two days since the quake hit Kumamoto prefecture, killing at least 17 people.
Matsushita, who is helping lead relief efforts, said he had no idea whether it would take days, weeks or months to repair the badly damaged water mains. “Because of the summer heat, the lack of water is especially difficult,” he said in the city hall.
With the building’s toilets out of order, officials erected emergency toilets over sewer manholes outside, in temperatures of around 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and stifling humidity.
“It will require painstaking work, and there is currently no timetable,” he added.
The Kumamoto prefectural government said the death toll from the earthquake was now at 17 – most of them at Nippon Paper Industries’ paper mill, which suffered major structural damage, and at Aeon’s shopping centre, where a possible gas explosion occurred. Another six people were in cardiopulmonary arrest, it said.
