Amid continuing aftershocks, scared and hungry quake survivors huddled for warmth in crippled northern regions Wednesday as falling snow and cutting winds added to their misery.
Amid continuing aftershocks, scared and hungry quake survivors huddled for warmth in crippled northern regions Wednesday as falling snow and cutting winds added to their misery.
Two centimeters of snow was recorded in Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture that was badly battered by Friday's magnitude-9.0 temblor.
In Morioka, the capital of Iwate Prefecture and also affected by the quake, up to 5 cm of snow fell after the temperature dropped to minus 1.4 degrees.
Coastal communities there have been unable to provide weather data since the mega-quake triggered disastrous tsunami in their areas.
Kerosene stoves were lit even in the morning Wednesday at a makeshift shelter in the gym of Okino-Higashi Elementary School in Sendai's Wakabayashi Ward, where some 260 people were evacuated.
Stoves are usually turned off in the morning after being on throughout the night. But with the freezing conditions, many evacuees pleaded for heating to be maintained.
Sumiko Watanabe, 80, noted that elderly people are particularly vulnerable to cold.
"The lack of food is a problem," she said. "But the cold also hits the elderly hard. I daren't move away from the stove."
Watanabe said she was given a bowl of "okayu" rice porridge and half of an apple for breakfast.
Most of the 130 blankets provided by the local government were given to people staying near entrances to the shelter.
Sendai, the largest city in the devastated Tokohu region with a pre-quake population of about 1 million, is caught in the grip of good and other shortages.
More than 1,000 people formed a line outside the Sendai outlet of a supermarket chain operated by Daiei Inc. before it opened at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Takeshi Oshima, who was at the top of the queue, was wearing five layers of clothes under his coat. Oshima said he began his vigil on Tuesday at 10:30 p.m.
"It is very taxing to wait for so many hours in the freezing cold," said the 20-year-old college student, who lives in the city's Wakabayashi Ward. "But my parents and a brother are waiting at home. I want to buy a gas canister and various foodstuffs so that we can have something warm to eat."
Hiroko Sugawara, a 27-year-old company employee in the city's Aoba Ward, said she came to buy warm clothes, food and bottles of mineral water for her parents in tsunami-hit Ishinomaki in the prefecture. She said she had been unable to make contact with them since the disaster hit.
"I will go and look for them tomorrow," she said. "I want to buy warm clothes for them because it is a lot colder in Ishinomaki. I also want to buy as much food and water as I can because there must be little available at their shelter."
At a junior high school in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, about 20 people made a fire in a drum can in the school ground to keep warm as light snow fell.
About 1,000 people are sheltering at the school.
Evacuees maintain the fire almost around the clock.
"There is plenty of scrap wood," said Yoshihiro Terui, 47, who evacuated to the school right after the quake.
He said people took turns to go to areas devastated by tsunami to gather timber from collapsed homes.
"While I am here, I meet many people and avoid the feeling of loneliness," he said.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, temperatures will drop to below zero in many parts of the Tohoku region on Thursday and Friday, with some snowfall expected.