The 1,592-meter (5,223-foot) -high mountain is about a 1 1/2-hour drive from the epicenter.The historic Aso Shrine, a picturesque complex near the volcano, was seriously damaged, with a number of buildings with curved tiled roofs flattened on the ground like lopsided fans. "Fortunately, this time the epicenters have been below land rather than under the sea, and no tsunamis have been triggered," he said.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed concern about secondary disasters, given the forecast for rain and strong winds. In another part of the village, houses were left hanging precariously at the edge of a huge hole cut open in the earth.At a hot springs resort, dozens of people trapped were picked up by military helicopters, Asahi TV reported.TV video showed a collapsed student dormitory at Aso city's Tokai University that was originally two floors, but now looked like a single-story building. A witness said he heard a cry for help from the rubble. Landslides have already cut off roads and destroyed bridges, slowing down rescuers.Hundreds of people lined up for rations at shelters before nightfall, bracing for the rain and strong winds that were expected.
The death toll surged when some 2,000 bodies were found on two shores in Miyagi Prefecture, the Kyodo News Agency reported on Monday. It was reported t… I'm here! All rights reserved.Television footage showed houses flattened and landslides that had swallowed up roads and railway lines in the village of Minamiaso. MASHIKI, Japan (CBSNewYork/AP) — Southern Japan is reeling this morning after two deadly earthquakes in two days, leaving at least 32 killed and 1,500 others injured.
The search for survivors is in full effect while 70,000 people have been forced to relocate from their homes.
The rising death toll is from a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that rocked the southern Japanese city of Kumamoto at 1:25 a.m. local time Saturday, sparking fires and a landslide, collapsing buildings and igniting powerful aftershocks, including one registering at 5.8. Do you remember my face?' She replied with a huge smile filled with joy. Police officers check a collapsed house after an earthquake in Mashiki town, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo April 16, 2016. © Reuters
© ReutersRomon gate (bottom R), designated as a nationally important cultural property, and other buildings damaged by an earthquake are seen at Aso Shrine in Aso, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo April 16, 2016. Another gnawed at a highway, collapsing a house that fell down a ravine and smashed at the bottom. National broadcaster NHK said as many as eight quakes were being felt an hour in the area.Four people were missing in Minamiaso, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported. Aso, an active volcano and popular tourist site. An estimated 400,000 households were without running water.Gallery: Earthquakes in Japan: Gallery 2, April 16, 2016"Daytime today is the big test" for rescue efforts, Abe said early Saturday. TV video showed people huddled in blankets, sitting or lying shoulder-to-shoulder on the floors of evacuation centers.
"It is unusual but not unprecedented for a larger and more damaging earthquake to follow what was taken to be 'the main event,'" he said."I could hear the noise of all my dishes come crashing down, the rattling, and I was shocked and sad, now I've lost all my dishes," said Ayuko Sakamoto, who was among those in line for the food.The area has been rocked by aftershocks, including the strongest with a magnitude of 5.4 Saturday morning. Kumamoto prefecture has tallied 1,454 homes destroyed so far, of which 1,026 are in Mashiko.A magnitude-6.5 earthquake on Thursday night followed by a 7.3 quake early Saturday morning caused widespread damage in parts of Kumamoto city and surrounding communities on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands.The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 5.8 magnitude earthquake Wednesday about 60 miles off the coast of Honshu prefecture, which was one of the hardest hit regions in the devastating March 2011 quake and tsunami.
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. has suspended some of its facilities in nearby Oita Prefecture for safety checks.Some companies extended operational halts following the Saturday earthquake. The death toll from earthquakes in southern Japan reached 41 after a series of temblors struck Kyushu island overnight, including one more powerful than the quake that hit Kumamoto a day earlier.