WNAM REPORT: Japan on Tuesday marked 14 years since a devastating earthquake and tsunami rocked the country’s northeast and triggered a nuclear crisis, with residents in one of the hardest-hit areas again reeling from the impact of a natural disaster.The commemoration came at a particularly hard time for residents of Ofunato in Iwate Prefecture who have evacuated due to a massive wildfire that broke out in late February. The blaze has been contained, with all evacuation orders lifted by Monday.
When the triple disasters struck 14 years ago, scores of people were forced from their homes. The disaster-prone nation has since taken steps to be better prepared for natural calamities, including the handling of evacuations, and rebuild the affected areas.
People across Japan will observe a moment of silence and prayer for the victims at 2:46 p.m., when the magnitude-9.0 temblor struck off the Pacific coast, leading to the deaths of over 22,000.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is scheduled to attend a memorial service hosted by Fukushima Prefecture, where the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex is located.
While there has been progress in the recovery of Fukushima and the other two hardest-hit prefectures of Miyagi and Iwate, about 28,000 people remain displaced across the nation and areas in seven municipalities in Fukushima are still designated as off-limits due to radiation, according to the Reconstruction Agency.Cleanup efforts at the Fukushima complex continue amid controversy over the release into the sea of treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled plant, with decommissioning expected to last for several decades.
Drawing on lessons from the worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, a Kyodo News survey found that 72 of 116 municipalities located within 30 kilometers of reactors across Japan feel the need to review their evacuation plans for nuclear accidents.
In the survey, 28 municipalities said they had not included the possibility of severed roads in their current evacuation plans.
