Earthquake in Japan: Community supplies for Vietnamese, large-scale rescue completed
WVR - As of the morning of August 2, apart from one worker who died and another injured, no additional casualties have been reported among the Vietnamese community due to the earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan.
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| A house collapsed due to the earthquake in Kumamoto City, Japan, on July 29. (Source: VCG) |
Previously, on August 1, the local Vietnamese community held a funeral for Tran Van Son, the Vietnamese victim who died in the earthquake.
Yatsushiro and Uki are among the hardest-hit areas. Yatsushiro currently has about 1,000 Vietnamese residents, while Uki has approximately 350. Most Vietnamese in these areas are technical interns and specified skilled workers in the agricultural sector.
The biggest challenge for residents after the earthquake is the widespread water outage. Speaking with reporters, Le Tram, President of the Vietnamese Association in Kumamoto, and Vice President Xuan Hoa stated that local authorities have ensured sufficient food and water supplies at evacuation centers.
Vietnamese families with young children have generally reached safe evacuation sites, while many single workers remain at their residences, sending requests for water and food support to community groups.
In response, Vietnamese associations and communities in Kumamoto and the Kyushu region have organized numerous relief teams, delivering water and food directly to workers' residences.
By the morning of August 2, many supermarkets and food stores had reopened, helping alleviate the shortage of drinking water and food in affected areas.
Meanwhile, search and rescue operations at sites with many trapped individuals have been largely completed. At the Nippon Paper Industries plant in Yatsushiro City, rescue teams extracted all 11 trapped individuals by the afternoon of July 30, with 9 fatalities.
At Aeon Mall Kumamoto in Kashima Town, rescue efforts concluded by noon on August 1 after authorities rescued 12 people, though 7 of them did not survive. Meanwhile, at Aeon Mall Uki, on the evening of July 31, rescue teams discovered an approximately 80-year-old man under a collapsed wall and removed him in a state of cardiac arrest.
Thus, large-scale rescue operations at the two sites with the most trapped individuals, Nippon Paper Industries and Aeon Mall Kumamoto, have been completed. The focus of response efforts is gradually shifting from search and rescue to supporting evacuees and restoring essential infrastructure.
The Japanese Government has prepared 73 hotels and accommodations capable of housing approximately 2,200 people, facilitating a second evacuation from crowded centers or those unsuitable for long-term living conditions.
Post-disaster bathing, water supply, waste collection points, and volunteer centres have begun operations in Uki, Uto, Mashiki, Kashima, and Mifune. As of the morning of August 2, the earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture has resulted in 38 deaths and 101 injuries.
