Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 34 in Southwestern Japan

KUMAMOTO, Japan — The death toll climbed to 34 from a powerful earthquake in southwestern Japan that set off an explosion at a mall, toppled a factory chimney and flattened homes, the Kumamoto prefectural government said Friday.

The magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Japan's southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday. As search operations entered a 4th day, it wasn't known how many people remained missing and the scale of the damage to homes across the region was still unclear.

Officials said 34 deaths had been confirmed as related to the disaster, with one more death still under investigation. Dozens of people were injured.

Thousands are without water and power as heat soars

More than 79,000 homes were without water and more than 3,500 without electricity on Friday. Authorities said more than 9,000 people were staying in shelters, where power sources were being added to provide air conditioning.

In the days since the quake, concerns have grown about illness, including from the sweltering heat. Temperatures Friday were due to rise to 36 C (97 F) in Kumamoto city, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, after stifling 35 C (95 F) heat on Thursday.

Searches continue, with the number of missing unknown

Searchers continued to work in the Kumamoto area on Friday, including at the site of the collapsed Aeon Mall shopping center in the town of Kashima, where some of the most serious damage was recorded. The complex was bustling with thousands of people when the quake happened.

The company said about 3,000 shoppers were evacuated to a parking lot before an explosion happened in another part of the mall, where some staff remained working. The mall's second floor collapsed, trapping people.

At the site, seven people were confirmed dead and 11 had been rescued, Japanese Chief Cabinet Sec Minoru Kihara told reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Authorities didn't say how many were still missing.

Meanwhile, a search operation had ended at a Nippon Paper Industries factory in the Yatsushiro area where a chimney collapsed in the quake, Kihara said. Searchers rescued 11 people there, while nine others were confirmed dead.

Smaller scale searches continued Friday at the sites of collapsed houses in badly-hit towns in southern Kumamoto. Authorities haven't supplied a firm figure for how many people are missing.

Some bullet trains have resumed

Shinkansen bullet trains resumed between Kumamoto and Fukuoka to the north but with reduced services, according to Kyushu Railway Co., while those connecting cities down south to Kagoshima were still suspended.

Local trains in quake-hit areas, mainly in southern Kumamoto, were still suspended due to quake damage.

In the town of Hikawa, one of the most badly damaged parts of Kumamoto, officials said more than 800 of the town's 4,500 homes were destroyed or damaged. Many residents slept inside their vehicles in parks, at the town hall parking lot or outside their homes.

Some were without water or electricity, while others were scared to sleep indoors. Among them was Ayako Sudo, a woman in her 70s who was sleeping in her car with her husband.

"Since it's a wooden house, the shaking is really intense," Sudo said. "Even when the earthquakes are small, it shakes, and it brings up this feeling of fear. So I think I'd really prefer somewhere that feels safe."

Sudo slept in her car for two weeks before, after a powerful quake that shook Kumamoto in 2016.

"It's exhausting," she said. "We've been sleep-deprived in the car."