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DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Virus scales back Japan events marking 2011 disaster
by Staff Writers
Tokyo (AFP) March 11, 2020

Survivor pulled from China quarantine hotel collapse after 69 hours
Beijing (AFP) March 10, 2020 - A survivor was rescued after 69 hours trapped under a collapsed hotel used as a coronavirus quarantine facility in eastern China Tuesday, as officials said the building had been illegally rebuilt several times.

Twenty people died when the 66-room hotel crumbled Saturday night, with 41 people rescued from the wreckage injured and nine still feared trapped.

The unidentified man was pulled out late Tuesday afternoon nearly three days after the building collapsed, according to the official Xinhua news agency, and sent to a nearby hospital.

The accident has exposed safety loopholes neglected by local authorities, Shang Yong, deputy head of the Ministry of Emergency Management, said at a press conference Tuesday.

"This hotel was illegally constructed and had repeatedly violated the regulations," Shang said, saying local officials had "neglected their supervision responsibilities."

Local media published video that appeared to show the hotel's facade crumbling to the ground in seconds, exposing the structure's steel frame.

The building in the coastal city of Quanzhou -- which has recorded 47 virus cases -- had been repurposed to house people who had recently been in regions hard hit by COVID-19, according to local newspaper Quanzhou Evening News.

Video posted online Tuesday by the Ministry of Emergency Management showed rescuers bowing over the body of a victim, with one rescuer breaking down in tears and leaving the scene.

Earlier footage from the ministry showed rescuers helping children don surgical masks before pulling them from the remains of the six-storey Xinjia hotel.

A 12-year-old boy told emergency workers his mother was still buried in the rubble.

"She was next to me just now," he said in the video. His mother was pulled out alive hours later, according to the ministry.

Rescuers were also seen spraying disinfectant on each other, part of "strict decontamination" measures between shifts.

Besides the 61 people pulled out, nine others escaped on their own, the ministry said.

The first floor had been undergoing renovation since before the Lunar New Year holiday, and authorities said construction workers called the hotel's owner minutes before the collapse to report a deformed pillar.

The owner has been summoned by police while investigators work to determine whether the renovation or an original structural issue was at fault, according to the ministry.

Quanzhou Evening News reported Sunday that all of the people quarantined in the hotel had tested negative for the virus.

The emergency management ministry said some 200 local and 800 Fujian province firefighters had been deployed to the scene along with 11 search and rescue teams and seven rescue dogs, according to Xinhua.

The National Health Commission said it had dispatched to Quanzhou 18 medical experts from the nearby cities of Fuzhou and Xiamen.

China is no stranger to building collapses and deadly construction accidents that are typically blamed on the country's rapid growth leading to corner-cutting by builders and the widespread flouting of safety rules.

At least 20 people died in 2016 when a series of crudely-constructed multi-storey buildings packed with migrant workers collapsed in the eastern city of Wenzhou.

Japan on Wednesday marked the ninth anniversary of the killer tsunami that triggered the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, but fears about the new coronavirus forced a scaling back of public commemorations.

The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cancelled the annual public ceremony at National Theatre, attended by members of the royal family and people from the northeastern region hit hardest by the 2011 tsunami, earthquake and nuclear accident.

Instead, Abe will hold a small wreath-laying ceremony at his office in Tokyo, and he has asked the nation to observe a moment of silence at 2:46 pm (0546 GMT), when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck a seabed off Miyagi prefecture on March 11, 2011.

The decision came as the government asks the public to cancel or postpone major gatherings or unnecessary outings in a drive to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which has infected 568 people and been linked to 12 deaths in Japan.

The call has resulted in the shutdown of schools and the cancellation or rescheduling of everything from music concerts to football games, while graduation ceremonies, fashion shows and a sumo tournament have taken place behind closed doors.

"In light of the current situation, as it is now time for us to take all available measures to prevent further domestic spread of the virus, we have reached the conclusion that we could not avoid the cancellation of the ceremony," Abe said in a statement issued last week.

He offered condolences to those who lost loved ones and renewed his pledge to rebuild the disaster-hit region.

- Decades to decommission -

In 2011, the powerful quake triggered violent shaking followed by a towering tsunami, estimated at as high as 17 metres (56 feet) in some areas.

The wave swept Japan's vast northeastern shoreline, killing nearly 16,000 people with more than 2,500 still missing, and overwhelming the emergency power supplies that cooled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The disaster sent the reactors into meltdown, producing the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

The enormous steel-and-concrete buildings that housed the reactors exploded after hydrogen became trapped inside, spreading radioactive material across the region, though no deaths were attributed to the accident directly.

The accident prompted 160,000 to evacuate, many of whom have never returned.

Since then, the government and the plant's operator Tokyo Electric (TEPCO) have managed to bring the reactors to relative stability by pumping water inside to cool them.

But that has led to the accumulation of contaminated water, creating another problem to be solved, potentially by releasing it -- after filtration -- into the sea.

The final decommissioning of the crippled plant is expected to take four decades, but Abe's government hopes to showcase reconstruction so far in the region at this year's Olympics, with the torch relay starting from Fukushima and travelling across affected areas.

The coronavirus outbreak has raised concerns however that the Tokyo Games might be postponed, cancelled or take place behind closed doors. Organisers say preparations are on track, but they have already had to scale back test events and the Olympic flame arrival.

Tokyo Disney parks extend closure until early April over virus
Tokyo (AFP) March 11, 2020 - The operator of Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea said Wednesday the parks will remain closed through early April over fears of the coronavirus outbreak.

Oriental Land also said the openings of new zones and attractions, scheduled for April 15, will also be pushed back to mid-May, as the government calls on the public to avoid unnecessary outings and crowded places.

The announcement came a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a 10-day extension of measures intended to halt the spread of the new coronavirus, including cancelling, delaying or scaling back major events.

The virus has so far infected 568 people and been linked with 12 deaths in Japan.

Oriental Land originally closed the parks from February 29 with a plan to reopen from March 16.

"We are planning our resumption time for early April, but we will make an announcement at a later time," the company said in a brief statement.

"The opening of Tokyo Disneyland's major development area, which was scheduled for April 15, has been rescheduled to mid-May or later," the company said.

More than 30 million visitors flood into the two parks each year, including school children during spring break, and they are among the most popular destinations for tourists coming to Tokyo.

Abe has made a nationwide plea for the public to help halt the spread of the coronavirus, urging schools to close through early April and telling businesses to encourage commuters to work from home or avoid rush hour trains.

A panel of experts is expected to meet next week to assess the effectiveness of those measures.


Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes


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Wuhan residents decry 'fake' work as Chinese official tours city
Beijing (AFP) March 6, 2020
Videos showing residents at the centre of China's coronavirus epidemic haranguing a top Chinese official have highlighted persistent anger at how authorities have handled the crisis. The clips, which have been circulating online since Thursday, show occupants of an apartment block in the city of Wuhan yelling "it's all fake" from windows during an official neighbourhood inspection by Vice Premier Sun Chunlan. According to Chinese media, the complaints were an outcry against the community's prope ... read more

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