Debris Still Left There

Half a year has passed from the first hit of Kumamoto Consecutive Earthquakes, leaving tremendous damage on local community around. The quakes caused 110 of death, 55 of which were “related death” during evacuation after they secured their lives in the quakes, exceeding 50 “direct deaths” buried under the fallen houses or buildings. While factories are mostly recovered, the people are not hopeful to restart their ordinary life with slow progress in removing debris.

According to the survey of local governments, 180,472 houses were damaged in Kumamoto and Oita, 39,211 of which were entirely or half broken. Heavy rain after the quake causing landslides extended the damage, causing five deaths. Not fulfilled by 4,052 of temporary houses built by the government, people are evacuating in 10,553 of rental houses and rooms that are recognized as temporary houses financially supported. Facilities for asylum, school gymnasiums or community centers, will mostly be closed by the end of this month.

Kumamoto Prefectural Government announced that it had removed 483,000 metric tons of debris, which shared 24.8% of all, with estimation of progress expected. But, most houses are left as they were right after the earthquake torn them down. Even how the owners wanted to rebuild their houses, debris disturbed reconstruction efforts. The government has not lifted regulation for residence in some places with concern of further earthquake or landslide.

The land of suffered area was complicatedly distorted. Straight roads or ditches were strangely bent after the earthquakes. The people realized that they had been living right on an active fault. Active fault is still active. The residents are skeptical whether they can maintain their life on it, even if they could rebuild new houses. Some people consider establishing new town, avoiding appeared active fault. But, there is no authorized information whether the earthquake will return to their place.

Although factories for car parts were also heavily damaged by the quakes, they have mostly been recovered, restarting ordinary production. While Toyota Motors compensated the loss with alternative lines in other factories, Kumamoto Earthquake caused 80 thousands of decline in car producing. Distribution of factories is a common issue for manufacturers in Japan.

Various regulations block concentrated application of necessary policies in emergency of natural disaster. Donations do not easily reach the suffered people, while the government is considering how to distribute it equally. Broken houses cannot remove until the government evaluate the collapse as whole, half or recoverable. Happiness or comfort of the sufferers does not matter under the rule of bureaucracy.