Photo/Illutration Beds and food are left unused at an empty shelter in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on May 7. (Nobuhiro Shirai)

SUZU, Ishikawa Prefecture--Less than 5 percent of residents here took shelter at evacuation centers despite landslide warnings following the powerful earthquake that rocked the region.

Located at the tip of the Noto Peninsula, Suzu city has the highest rate of people aged 65 and older, 52.8 percent as of Oct. 1, in the prefecture.

The magnitude-6.5 quake registered an intensity of upper 6 on the Japanese scale of 7 in Suzu on May 5.

Shortly after 5 p.m. on May 6, the city government urged 1,630 people from 740 households to evacuate following heavy rain that heightened the risk of landslides in the area.

However, only 80 people had gone to the 20 evacuation centers in the area by the next morning. Many of those who sought shelter had fled their houses that were damaged by the quake.

“The evacuation instruction came too late,” said Kazue Kado, 78, who lives with her husband in the Otani area of the municipality.

Heavy rain had previously caused a landslide on a hill behind their house. Since then, the couple has taken a five-minute walk to a neighborhood shelter whenever they feel in danger.

But after the landslide warning on May 6, they decided to stay at their home because it would soon get dark and become more dangerous to go outdoors.

In the Otani area, 259 households were given evacuation instructions. Only two people from the area headed to shelters.

A 71-year-old man in the area said he didn’t evacuate either because he does not believe the hill near his house will ever collapse.

“We’ve gotten too used to tremors to bother following evacuation instructions,” another resident in her 40s said.

In the Hiki area of the city, Fumiko Ono and her mother who is in her 80s sought protection at an evacuation center.

The ill mother was reluctant to leave the house, but Ono persuaded her to go after relatives from outside the prefecture urged them to do so.

The evacuation instruction was issued to 119 households in Hiki.

When the evacuation instructions were issued on May 6, Suzu Mayor Masuhiro Izumiya said communities would help elderly residents take shelter. But very few elderly people left their homes.

Izumiya said these residents seemed hesitant to ask for help, thinking that doing so would cause others trouble.

Maki Koyama, an associate professor specializing in disaster management at Gifu University, said residents who do not evacuate in disasters should still take safety measures.

“Even if people decide to stay at home, they can still make themselves safer by staying on the upper floor, for example,” Koyama said.

Local governments need to regularly remind people to check hazard maps and make evacuation plans to prepare for landslides and other disasters, Koyama added.

(This article was written by Hiroyuki Kojima, Juntaro Oka and Amane Sugawara.)

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