SAPPORO -- Rescue activities by police and Self-Defense Forces continued Friday in the town of Atsuma, Hokkaido, where an earthquake measuring 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale was recorded on Thursday followed by massive landslides.
About 1,000 people spent a sleepless night at evacuation centers amid continuous aftershocks.
"The scenery of the town has changed," a 65-year-old construction worker lamented as he transported a machine to get rid of fallen trees.
Mud and sand covered fields of haskap berries, the town's specialty, while asphalt roads were buckled or cracked, with traffic cones keeping people from entering the areas.
Traffic lights remained inoperable, and there were no police officers controlling traffic, with cars and passengers giving way to each other.
Mobile phones were barely working. Many people were gathered near the town office Thursday night as phones could pick up signals there. However, no one was seen there on Friday as they apparently became unable to get signals.
Police officers and SDF members went busily in and out of the town office located near the site of search operations, while ambulance sirens roared all day.
On Friday morning, a 40-year-old woman was sitting alone at a corner of Atsuma Chuo Elementary School gym, where 78 people were staying. She learned about the death of her 16-year-old neighbor, whom she cared for like her own daughter.
"She told me that she used to like me more than her father when she was a child," the woman recalled. "She was a good, sincere girl. We were planning to go to an idol concert next year."
Her elder brother who was living in the town's Yoshino district remains unaccounted for due to the landslides. The woman said in tears, "Now I want my brother to be found soon."
However, right after the interview, a police officer came and told her that her brother had been found dead.
According to the Atsuma town office, seven evacuation centers were set up in the town, and 932 people stayed there overnight.
A 37-year-old woman, who took refuge at the gymnasium with her family, looked at her two daughters who were playing cards on a cushion they brought from home. "I was scared and couldn't sleep much as minor quakes continued. I just want to go home," she said with a weary look.
One welfare center accommodated 469 people, the largest number of the evacuees in the town. Breakfast was provided at about 7:30 a.m. at the facility.
A first-grade junior high school student said, "I could only sleep for four hours." But the 13-year-old boy added with a smile, "Because I'm hungry, I'm happy to be able to eat a hot rice ball."
Travelers still stranded
Operations resumed Friday at New Chitose Airport, which had been closed after the earthquake.
However, chaotic situations continued as a number of stranded travelers were waiting in long lines to secure seats for flights out of the airport. People carrying suitcases lined up at escalators leading to the domestic flight lobby, with the lines extending outside the airport.
At 10 a.m., airline companies resumed services at counters. Customers flocked to the counters for such reasons as refunding and changing reservations.
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