Photo/Illutration Residents of the Machino district of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, take shelter at a gymnasium of a former elementary school. (Hikaru Uchida)

The death toll from the powerful New Year’s Day earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture reached 126 on Jan. 6 as the focus of rescue activities increasingly turns to remote Noto Peninsula communities cut off from the outside world.

Authorities expressed fears of more fatalities from the magnitude-7.6 quake following forecasts of heavy rain and snow, as well as strong winds, across the Hokuriku region through Jan. 8.

Fourteen hamlets within the jurisdiction of the Ishikawa city of Wajima remain cut off. Officials said there was no word on how many residents were having to fend for themselves.

Widespread power outages added to the general misery.

A woman in her 40s who lives in Tokyo was alarmed because she had been unable to reach elderly relatives in the Horyumachi-Omachidoronoki district of Suzu since the earthquake. When the woman first rang to check whether the couple was OK, she said there was a ring tone. But even that was gone by Jan. 4.

She contacted the local fire department on Jan. 1 to ask for help and was told her request was one of many that would be added to the list that firefighters were trying to respond to.

One community comprised of 20 or so households in an area sandwiched by mountains and the ocean in the Niemachi district of Suzu no longer faces complete isolation after supplies and Self-Defense Forces members reached the neighborhood.

But a landslide on the evening of Jan. 1 buried a two-story home there.

Hisao Nakaya, 68, a neighbor, fought back tears as he said, “Ordinary happiness can be taken away just like that.”

He said four people normally lived at the house, an elderly couple in their 80s and their child and spouse in their 60s. But for the New Year’s holidays eight other relatives had returned home.

On Jan. 5, Nakaya said, “Five, including a child, have still not been found.”

Forty-two residents of Wajima and Noto were airlifted from their cut-off communities by police helicopters on Jan. 5, according to the National Police Agency.

Agency officials said about 1,100 police officers from 24 prefectures have converged on Ishikawa Prefecture to comb through collapsed homes for survivors as well as victims. By the afternoon of Jan. 5, a total of 69 residents had been rescued, including the 42 airlifted out.

Satoshi Kawasaki, 41, was on a car trip to the region with his wife and two children when the earthquake hit. Kawasaki and his family live in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture.

Every time an aftershock hit, his 10-year-old daughter cried out, “I don’t want to die.”

He heard a rumor that one road leading out of the district was still passable and decided to give it a try because the children had reached their psychological limit.

The family left on the morning of Jan. 4, but the road they were on was blocked by a landslide. After around eight hours searching for passable roads, the family finally reached Kawasaki’s parents’ home in Kanazawa with the car fuel gauge almost empty.

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