Police from Kanagawa Prefecture rescue a man from a collapsed home in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 3. (Video provided by the National Police Agency)

Photo/Illutration Firefighters search for survivors in an area destroyed by fire in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, even after sunset on Jan. 3. (Kazushige Kobayashi)

Severed roads, debris from collapsed buildings and treacherous mountainous terrain are posing additional challenges to rescuers as they frantically search for survivors from the Jan. 1 earthquake.

Rescuers in the rugged Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture have also had to contend with bad weather in their attempts to reach remote and depopulated communities.

On Jan. 4, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his government plans to deploy 2,600 additional Self-Defense Forces personnel in affected areas to shore up search and rescue efforts and meet basic needs at evacuation centers and elsewhere.

The decision came a day after the number of SDF rescue personnel was doubled to 2,000.

“We will make a concerted effort on the ground to save as many lives as possible,” Kishida told reporters at the prime minister’s office.

More search and rescue dogs were brought in at the request of affected municipalities, officials said Jan. 3.

Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said the SDF used an air-cushioned landing craft on Jan. 4 to unload heavy machinery on a sandy beach in Wajima from a transport vessel for search and rescue purposes.

Kihara said SDF personnel were working to remove huge amounts of debris from roads and providing access to emergency water supplies.

He said troops delivered police officers and firefighters to disaster areas and transported food provisions and blankets.

However, roads buckled by the magntidude-7.6 quake or covered with debris were impassable in places.

“We expect everyone to work together to restore the roads and remove other transportation bottlenecks as soon as possible so supplies can reach evacuation centers smoothly,” Kishida told a government meeting on Jan. 4.

Land ministry officials identified 85 sections of national and prefectural roads that were closed to traffic, mainly in Ishikawa Prefecture, as of the afternoon of Jan. 3.

The number represented a sharp increase from 33 sections in the late afternoon of Jan. 2 after more cracks, cave-ins and landslides were discovered.

NOT LIKE 2011 DISASTER

Road conditions in the hardest-hit cities of Wajima and Suzu largely remain unknown.

“The number of closed-off sections is expected to increase further,” said a senior land ministry official.

The Noto Peninsula has few trunk roads. Narrow roads that often run through areas sandwiched by mountains and the sea offer the main means of transport and cover the peninsula like capillary blood vessels.

In the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster in the northeastern Tohoku region, rescue workers were able to rely on the Tohoku Expressway and National Route 4, which run south-north in inland areas, to transport badly needed supplies to affected Pacific coastal areas.

Land ministry officials noted that the situation in the Noto Peninsula is entirely different.

The land ministry attempted to transport rescue goods by sea from a port near the disaster area on Jan. 3 but gave up due to rough waters.

“It is difficult to deliver even basic necessities such as beverages, water and diapers,” the senior ministry official said.

Many elderly people live alone in the northern part of the Noto Peninsula, where Wajima and Suzu are located.

“It is difficult to get in touch with residents and grasp situations in small rural communities,” said a senior official at the prime minister’s office.

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