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Japan: Funeral homes stretched to the limit as bodies wash ashore

Published:Tuesday | March 15, 2011 | 12:00 AM
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Rescue workers carry an elderly man found alive by tsunami survivors buried under rubble along a slope of a hill in Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture (state) yesterday, three days after a powerful earthquake-triggered tsunami hit the country's northeast coast.
Futaba Kosei Hospital patients who might have been exposed to radiation are carried into the compound of Fukushima Gender Equality Centre in Nihonmatsu in Fukushima Prefecture State on Sunday, after being evacuated.
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Tagajo (AP):

A tide of bodies washed up along Japan's coastline yesterday, overwhelming crematoriums, exhausting supplies of body bags and adding to the spiralling humanitarian, economic and nuclear crisis after the massive earthquake and tsunami.

Millions of people faced a fourth night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures along the northeast coast devastated by Friday's disasters. Meanwhile, a third reactor at a nuclear power plant lost its cooling capacity and its fuel rods were fully exposed, raising fears of a meltdown. The stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses by Japanese industries including big names such as Toyota and Honda.

Scattered along coastline

On the coastline of Miyagi prefecture, which took the full force of the tsunami, a Japanese police official said 1,000 bodies were found scattered across the coastline. Kyodo, the Japanese news agency, reported that 2,000 bodies washed up on two shorelines in Miyagi.

In one town in a neighbouring prefecture, the crematorium was unable to handle the large number of bodies being brought in for funerals.

"We have already begun cremations, but we can only handle 18 bodies a day. We are overwhelmed and are asking other cities to help us deal with bodies. We only have one crematorium in town," Katsuhiko Abe, an official in Soma, told The Associated Press.

10,000 feared dead

While the official death toll rose to nearly 1,900, the discovery of the washed-up bodies and other reports of deaths suggest the true number is much higher. In Miyagi, the police chief has said 10,000 persons are estimated to have died in his province alone.

Across Japan, most people opt to cremate their dead. With so many bodies, the government yesterday waived a rule requiring permission first from local authorities before cremation or burial to speed up funerals, said health ministry official Yukio Okuda.

Sato said deliveries of food and other supplies were just 10 per cent of what is needed. Body bags and coffins were running so short that the government may turn to foreign funeral homes for help, he said.

As sirens wailed, soldiers abandoned their search operations and told residents of the devastated shoreline in Soma, the worst hit town in Fukushima prefecture, to run to safety.