Hope dwindles for rescue in southwestern Japan quake as death toll climbs to 23

Survivors spoke about coming home and desperately pulling family members out of the wreckage. Some had suffered injuries and were rushed to the hospital.

Thousands of people spent another night at evacuation centers set up throughout the area in gymnasiums and other big spaces. Some homes were still without water or electricity, while others were simply afraid to go back.

Nearly 23,000 homes were still without electricity and more than 10,000 people were staying in the roughly 400 shelters, where power sources were being added to provide air conditioning.

Concerns were growing about illness, including from the sweltering heat. The Ministry of Environment sent out a heat stroke alert for the Kumamoto area, with temperatures expected to reach as high as 33 C (91 F) Thursday.

Although Japan boasts strict building codes because of the frequency of quakes in the country, some homes in the area are in the older style of Japanese housing, making them relatively fragile.

The most serious damage was at the Aeon Mall shopping center in the town of Kashima, which was bustling with thousands of people when the quake struck in the late afternoon.

The company said some 3,000 customers were evacuated to a parking lot before the explosion happened in another part of the mall, where some people were still working. The mall’s second floor collapsed, trapping people.

As of early Thursday, six people were confirmed to have died at the mall site among the 11 people pulled out of the wreckage, according to Kumamoto authorities.

Family members of those still missing could be seen wandering helplessly near the wrecked mall, waiting for word, despite the sweltering weather.

In the Yatsushiro area, where a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, 10 people were rescued, but eight others died, and one remained missing, according to the Kumamoto prefectural government disaster team.

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Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

Hope dwindles for rescue in southwestern Japan quake as death toll climbs to 23

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