Hillsides Unrecognizable after Landslides in Hokkaido Quake

September 6, 2018

Atsuma, Hokkaido- Landslides in the Yoshino district in Atsuma, a town in Hokkaido, devoured homes and trees alike in a powerful earthquake on Thursday, leaving behind gouged areas showing the reddish brown soil of what was once luscious green hillsides.

The landslides, caused by the earthquake that rocked the northernmost prefecture in the early morning, started near the top of the hill slopes.

The soil avalanches hurtled down to the foot of the hills, engulfing houses in their wake, poured across roads and flowed into rice paddies and fields. Destroyed trees and homes were spotted from the air piled up at the ends of the landslides.

The surface of the slopes the slides left behind resembled smoothly prepared ski slopes, indicating the landslides' powerful flow.

Mieko Nishimura, 79, who lives near the site of a landslide, said the area is beautiful in the autumn season as the trees on the hills show their autumn colors.

She said that the area now, however, has "become brown in an instant."

"I'm shaking from shock," she added.

The earthquake, which registered the maximum 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale in Atsuma, caused similar large-scale landslides in other parts of the town as well.

Some 510 people have left their homes to go to evacuation centers, according to the town government.

Self-Defense Forces troops, police and others are continuing with their rescue operations. SDF and police personnel are conducting rescue missions using heavy machinery and other equipment near houses submerged under sediment and trees.

In front of such houses, some people were seen praying for the safety of the missing residents.

"I was surprised to see so many landslides occurring in the earthquake," Kenichi Endo, 70, said while looking at his partially buried relative's house in the Asahi district.

"I came running (to the relative's house) as I was worried," Endo, who lives in another part of town, added.

"This is madness," a 43 year-old woman living in the Horosato district said repeatedly.

According to the woman, her parents were buried alive when sediment, trees and houses gushed into her parents' bedroom.

Together with her brother, she tried to rescue her mother as she could see her face and feet. Tree roots and other objects, however, were in the way and they could not get their mother out.

As the woman and her brother were escorted to safety in a helicopter by rescue crew who arrived at the scene, she does not know whether her parents are safe.

"I hope they get rescued," she said with tears in her eyes.

Meanwhile, residents in the neighboring town of Abira voiced their alarm at the earthquake that struck while many were still sleeping.

Shizuo Shimoji, 69, who was knocked out of bed by the quake's jolt, said he "could have died" if he had not woken up, as the temblor knocked down a chest of drawers and other objects.

"I thought my house was going to collapse," said Kazuo Kibayashi, a 51-year-old town employee who rushed to the town office in the early hours of the morning to handle the aftermath of the earthquake.

Kibayashi said that the quake woke him up and that all of his furniture toppled over. His family evacuated to their car. Jiji Press