Rescuers with dogs search for survivors after the deadly Hokkaido earthquake

TOKYO (Reuters) – Rescuers searched for survivors on Friday in landslides caused by an earthquake on the island of Hokkaido in northern Japan, killing at least 16 people, officials said.

Electricity has been returned to nearly half of the island's 5.3 million inhabitants after a blackout caused by the magnitude 6.7 earthquake on Thursday morning. After the pre-dawn earthquake, Japan's last natural disaster, there have also been massive cuts to transportation.

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Nearly 5,000 people spent the night in evacuation centers where food was distributed in the morning.

"It was a scary night with many aftershocks, but we were encouraged by being together and now we are grateful to have food," said a woman on the public channel NHK.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at an emergency meeting on Friday morning that 22,000 rescuers had been working all night searching for survivors.

With rain forecast for Friday afternoon and Saturday, he urged people to pay attention to loose earth that could cause the collapse of unstable homes or new landslides.

"We will devote all our energy to saving lives," Abe said.

Hokkaido Electric Power Co. was planning to put back more than 80% of the 2.95 million homes by the end of Friday, said Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko.

The flights resumed at noon at Hokkaido's main airport, New Chitose, and more flights are scheduled for the afternoon, officials said.

The island, about the size of Austria, is a popular tourist destination known for its mountains, lakes and seafood.

LANDSLIDES WRECK HOMES

Soldiers in fatigues and orange rescuers searched for survivors, passing through debris on huge mounds of earth near the epicenter of Atsuma, in southern Hokkaido. Aerial images show rescuers accompanied by dogs crossing the destruction.

The 26 missing people are from the Atsuma region, where dozens of landslides have destroyed homes and other structures and left hillsides in utter barrenness.

"I just hope that they can find it quickly," said an unidentified man at NHK while he was looking for his missing neighbor's search.

The earthquake damaged the large Tomato-Atsuma plant, which normally supplies half of Hokkaido's energy and is near the epicenter, forcing it to shut down automatically. This caused such instability in the network that it triggered all the other power plants on the island, causing a total blackout.

Hokkaido Electric has brought back other smaller factories and has also received electricity transferred by submarine cables from the main island of Honshu.

The earthquake was the second disaster to hit Japan this week after a summer in which the country was hit by deadly typhoons, floods and a record heat wave.

The Kansai International Airport has been shut down since Typhoon Jebi passed through Osaka on Tuesday, although some domestic flights operated by Japan Airlines (JAL) and ANA's low-cost carrier PNA Aviation resumed on Friday, operators said. .

JR Hokkaido planned to resume high-speed train operations from noon. He was also trying to pick up other train services on Friday afternoon, a spokesman said.

Manufacturers were still affected by power outages.

Toyota Motor Corp's Tomakomai plant, which makes transmissions and other parts, said its operations were suspended indefinitely until power was restored, a spokesman said.

Toppan Printing's operations in a factory in Chitose, which makes food packaging, will remain suspended until it regains power, a spokesman said.

The earthquake led Japan's Self-Defense Forces to cancel two joint military exercises in Hokkaido, including the first exercise with Australian warplanes and a training exercise with the US Marine Corps.

A friendly match between Japan and Chile, scheduled for Friday in Sapporo, has also been canceled.