日本震后救援行动仍在继续

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At least 41 people have died, six more have been reported missing and nearly 2,000 have been injured since Thursday as a result of the strongest tremors⁴. The quakes have collapsed buildings and bridges, triggered fires and landslides⁵, and even derailed a bullet train. Some small communities remain cut off, and officials say they therefore don't yet know the full scope of the tragedy.

More than 250,000 people have been either ordered to leave their homes or have left voluntarily because of damage or fears of further destructive tremors, according to officials in Kumamoto prefecture.

Quake Rescue Operations Continue Amid Japan Aftershocks

Tens of thousands of personnel are involved in the rescue-and-recovery effort, which is being hampered⁶ by heavy winds and rain.

"The Self Defense⁷ Force, police and firefighters have been working to rescue people, but there are still missing people. The government will further deploy⁸ all possible means by expanding the troop size to 25,000," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.

His government's emergency task force held a second meeting at the prime minister's office Sunday morning to discuss response measures amid increasing reports of shortages of essential supplies in the worst-hit communities.

The central government is making available 900,000 meals, a ton of baby formula and 60,000 diapers, according to Taro⁹ Kono, the Cabinet minister in charge of disaster response.

The Japan Meteorological Agency placed the magnitude of Saturday's largest quake at 7.3, which followed Thursday's 6.5 tremor³. Both were at shallow depths, onshore and located under populated areas.

Asked by VOA whether he concurred¹⁰ with JMA's assessment¹¹ that Thursday's shallow temblor was a foreshock to the stronger quake on Saturday, University of Tokyo professor of geophysics Robert Geller said, "Now I would. But if there is a M7.6, say, tomorrow, we'd have to revise that again. Highly unlikely, yes; completely impossible, no."

Geller added that the series of powerful quakes in Kumamoto prefecture was not uncommon¹². "For example, there was a magnitude 7.3 quake two days before the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku quake in 2011," he said.

An active volcano in the area, Mount Aso, also erupted for the first time in a month, although Japanese authorities said the small eruption¹³ was not linked to the quake.

Abe had planned to visit Kumamoto, 1,200 kilometers southwest of the capital, to survey the damage, but decided¹⁴ to avoid the area while aftershocks continue. More than 400 detectable¹⁵ tremors, located in or near the Beppu-Shimabara rift¹⁶ zone, have been reported since Thursday's earthquake.

The historic Aso Shrine¹⁷, more than 1,700 years old, suffered a great deal of damage. Part of a wall at the 400-year-old Kumamoto castle also collapsed.

More than 100,000 homes in Kumamoto prefecture remained without electricity Sunday, and water service has been disrupted to 422,000 households, according to the Japanese government, forcing residents to haul water from local offices to their homes.

There were no reported abnormalities at three nearby nuclear facilities, according to a government spokesman.

Operations at key manufacturing plants in the area, includin

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