The Noto Peninsula earthquake disaster area is gradually becoming less isolated. However, recovery is still a long way off, and the victims are being forced to make the decision to leave their hometowns and "secondary evacuation." The program's camera entered a town near the epicenter that remained isolated. ■ The reality of the "epicenter town"... Collapsed houses untouched (Announcer Kazuma Sasaki) "Ah, there's a landslide here. It has collapsed over several tens of meters." The earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula on New Year's Day. The epicenter was in the northern part of Suzu City. Today, the 14th, Sunday Station headed to Otani Town, which is close to the epicenter. "If we continue on this way, we'll reach Otani Town. (Announcer Kazuma Sasaki) "A tree has fallen here and is still caught on the electric wires." After walking for an hour... "We can see the village over there. This is Otani Town, which is close to the epicenter of this earthquake. Otani Town has also suffered severe damage. The first floor of this house has been completely destroyed." A collapsed house remained untouched. "It seems like someone lives here. Shall we go and check it out?" There is a crack on the property... "I'm here to cover Otani, can I talk to you for a moment?" Yoshihara-san lives in Otani-machi. The electricity and water are still cut off. (Yoshihara Hinoe (70)) "I still can't take a bath. I haven't taken a bath for over 10 days." There are still many isolated villages here in Otani-machi (Yoshihara Hinoe) "The area above is still isolated. There is a community center in the village, so we gather there." Q. How many people live in the area? "I think there are about 40 to 50 people." (Miyamoto Hana reporter) "The helicopter has started descending. We will arrive at the Nishiho district soon. It is an area surrounded by steep mountains and the sea." The Self-Defense Force helicopter headed for the Nishiho district of Wajima City. 148 people are still isolated. With no prospect of lifeline restoration, 51 people are evacuating en masse. (Firefighter) "Is anyone feeling unwell? If not, I think it would be good to have six people, preferably from a household or family, board the vehicle together in any combination at first." (Evacuating resident) "I don't want to leave. I thought I would be a nuisance to others if I didn't move together with everyone, so I followed along." More than 20,000 people have evacuated to Ishikawa Prefecture. On the 14th, Prime Minister Kishida visited the area for the first time since the earthquake. (Prime Minister Kishida Fumio) "We will do our utmost to help rebuild and support the lives and livelihoods of the victims." In order to prevent disaster-related deaths, "wide-area evacuation" and "secondary evacuation" are urgently needed. (Masahiko Ozaka, Ozaka Acupuncture Clinic) "I finally cleaned up a little, but the foundation (of my house) is shaky. There are many parts where the doors won't close." Ozaka, who has run an acupuncture clinic in Wajima City for 50 years, is confused about leaving the place where he has lived for so long. (Masahiko Ozaka, Ozaka Acupuncture Clinic) "If secondary evacuation means we don't have to rely on the government, that's fine, but I'm not sure which is the best choice..." ■First electricity in 12 days... Isolation is still a problem The Mugigaura district of Anamizu Town was isolated. A week ago, the road that collapsed on the sea side... (Announcer Kazuma Sasaki) "The road has been repaired. Until a few days ago, the road was cut off here, but now it has been covered with iron plates, so cars can pass through." Relief supplies have finally arrived. (Jiro Hosokawa) "Thank you, as always. I'm sorry for the inconvenience." "We already have some instant noodles, so please send them to other places." (SDF member) "I understand." "Thank you for your hard work, and be careful." Originally, 27 people lived in this district, but half have evacuated, and now only 14 people remain. Most of them are elderly. (Hosokawa Jiro) "Grandma, I've brought you some bread, but is there anything else you'd like besides food?" "I've already got plenty." "I came to see you." "Thank you." 82-year-old Umamichi Yuriko lives alone. Although she is no longer isolated, her life in the disaster area remains tough. Electricity was restored after 12 days. (Umamichi Yuriko) "When the electricity is on, it really feels like someone is holding me, and it makes me happy." But the running water... (Umamichi Yuriko) "There's no water... I carry water from the mountains in the morning, then I wash it here, and when the electricity comes back, I can cook rice starting today." To save on kerosene, she says she has endured the cold without using the stove much, instead using hand warmers. (Umamichi Yuriko) "I wrapped it up here, and I have a stove, so I didn't want it to be any warmer than that. I'm satisfied with this and think it's warm enough, so it's warm..." The prolonged water outage also had a negative impact on dairy farming. (Kawakami Mitsunori, head of the Kahokugata Dairy Farmers' Association) "Milk just stops coming out. Then the composition of the milk changes. This leads to cows getting sick." This farm needs 10 tons of water a day for drinking water for the approximately 200 cows and for cleaning the milking machines. Although they have been given some of the water used for firefighting and have been transporting it, it is still not enough. (Kawakami Mitsunori, head of the Kahokugata Dairy Farmers' Association) "Water is everything. There is no prospect of recovery at all." Another difficult thing is watering the cows. Until now, the water pressure from the waterworks automatically brought the water to the water source, but now it has to be given by hand. (Kawakami Mitsunori, head of the Kahokugata Dairy Farmers Association) "Without water, everything has to be done by hand. Everyone is really exhausted." Cars buried by liquefaction... Damage spreads due to "lateral flow" Uchinada-cho is a commuter town for Kanazawa City, with many houses lined up. Although it is far from the epicenter, a different scene unfolded from other disaster areas. (Reporter Saito Hisashi) "It's a house over there. It's like the whole land has fallen, leaving only the foundation. There is a drop of about 1.5 meters." The road is deeply cracked and raised... The first floor of the building is about half buried. The most serious thing was the widespread "liquefaction phenomenon." "Cars were buried by the liquefaction phenomenon." Several cars were buried in the erupted sand. Mr. Kajihara, who took the video, has lived in this town for over 50 years, but says this is the first time he has ever seen such a thing. (Kihara Yoshio) "This is the bathroom, but it's sagging this much. Let's go. There's this many cracks." Looking inside the house, the floor has been lifted up along with the foundation, and distortions have appeared everywhere. During our investigation, we found similar damage over an area of ​​about 10km, including the neighboring city of Kahoku to the north. The nature of the land is the cause of this... (Matsumura Kirian, Director) "There are many traces of water spurting out due to liquefaction. And when you touch it, it's smooth and fine-grained." The residential area was built by cutting away the existing sand dunes. For this reason, the town also showed hazard maps and encouraged liquefaction countermeasures. However, Professor Yasuda, who conducted a three-day investigation on-site, said that a unique phenomenon had occurred during this liquefaction. (Professor Emeritus Yasuda Susumu of Tokyo Denki University, who conducted the on-site investigation) "The entire ground has been moving due to lateral flow, which is what caused the extensive damage. Normally, when liquefaction occurs on flat ground, the shaking of a strong earthquake turns the ground into liquid, causing vertical damage, with heavy objects such as houses sinking and light objects such as manholes floating to the surface. However, in the case of the "lateral flow" that occurred this time, the ground moved along the slope of the land, so the damage to homes was greater. (Professor Emeritus Yasuda Susumu) "I think (the ground) has moved about 3m. If it moves sideways, that means the structure of the building itself has suffered considerable damage." The Noto Peninsula earthquake has completely changed the cityscape. The full extent of the damage within the town is still unknown. (Kihara Yoshio) "It's too late to build a new house now. I'd like to repair it and live there if possible. I'm going to be here forever." From "Sunday Station" on January 14 [TV Asahi News] https://news.tv-asahi.co.jp