Water, Gas Supply Yet to Be Restored in Northern Osaka after Major Quake

June 19, 2018

Osaka- Water and gas supply was yet to be restored in northern areas of the western Japan prefecture of Osaka on Tuesday, the day after a major earthquake hit the areas, while transportation services affected by the temblor were generally resumed.

Water networks remained disrupted in the cities of Takatsuki and Minoo, where Self-Defense Forces troops were conducting water supply missions. Gas supply was halted at a total of some 110,000 households in Takatsuki, and the cities of Ibaraki, Settsu and Suita. Osaka Gas Co. <9532> said Tuesday that it aims to restore the gas services by next Monday.

The earthquake registered up to lower 6, the third-highest level on the country's seismic intensity scale, killing four people including a nine-year-old girl, all in Osaka, and injuring about 380 people in Osaka and five other prefectures. More than 250 buildings were damaged. Aftershocks have been occurring intermittently.

All elementary and junior high schools in Takatsuki, Ibaraki and four other northern Osaka municipalities, and some in Minoo were closed on Tuesday, mainly for safety reasons, according to prefectural officials and other sources.

About 2,300 people took shelter in elementary schools and community halls at a peak time following the quake. There were still 1,780 evacuees as of 8 a.m. Tuesday (11 p.m. Monday GMT), according to the Osaka prefectural government.

"I couldn't sleep well," said illustrator Yu Omukai, 34, who evacuated to an elementary school in Ibaraki. Omukai's five-year-old son woke up at night at the shelter, due to aftershocks. Their apartment building was damaged by the major earthquake, which had an estimated magnitude of 6.1.

"We can't stay here for long. I need to keep my son from feeling scared," Omukai said. Omukai suffered posttraumatic stress disorder after experiencing the 7.3-magnitude Great Hanshin Earthquake in January 1995, which struck Kobe, the capital of neighboring Hyogo Prefecture, and nearby areas.

"I'm worried about aftershocks," housewife Misuzu Nibu, 55, said. She was also staying in the Ibaraki elementary school.

"The shelter isn't a place where we can sleep peacefully, but we decided to evacuate, given that the main shock of the Kumamoto quakes (in the Kyushu southwestern region in April 2016) came a few days after a major foreshock," her 22-year-old son, Shunta, said. Jiji Press