Residents have been battling to clear huge piles of snow that have blocked roads to isolated towns in a winter cold spell that has left 73 people dead.

Some 40 soldiers landed Wednesday at Sakaemura in Nagano prefecture, a town around 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Tokyo that has been blanketed by roof-high snow, officials said.

"They are helping remove piled-up snow on the street or on the roofs where old people need help," said an official at the Nagano prefectural government.

In the nearby city of Iiyama, a wooden gymnasium owned by a tourism organization caved in Tuesday night under the weight of three meters (10 feet) of snow, officials said. No injuries were reported.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has predicted a rise in temperature above freezing later this week but warned that the accompanying rain could set off avalanches.

Some 301 people in 124 households are isolated in Sakaemura and nearly 200 more people are without road links in Tsunanmachi in neighboring Niigata prefecture.

The towns have been dependent for three days on airlifts by the military, which on Tuesday delivered 1,000 liters (260 gallons) of fuel to Sakaemura to keep its snow blowers running.

But the airlifts have their limits. Tsunanmachi's school board cancelled a plan to bring about 10 students out of the village to attend school elsewhere as visibility was too poor for regular helicopter flights.

"We will wait until the weather permits to carry them by helicopter," said Yoshinari Yaezawa at the town's board of education.

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