Japan: No. of confirmed dead, missing in fatal quake believed to top 6,000

Kyodo News:

More than 6,000 people are confirmed dead or remain unaccounted for following Friday's catastrophic earthquake, a police tally showed Tuesday.

The National Police Agency said 2,475 people were confirmed dead while 3,118 were missing as of 10 a.m., but many unidentified bodies have been detected in quake-hit coastal areas.

The agency has identified 1,060 bodies so far, of which around 420 were returned to their families.

Thousands of survivors are believed to be isolated where they have taken refuge, with around 1,300 people found stranded on the island of Oshima, Miyagi Prefecture, according to local authorities.

Some 7,000 to 8,000 people have taken shelter at schools but have received no relief supplies, they said.

Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai told a press conference Monday evening that fuel shortages at hospitals and in devastated coastal areas are the biggest problem so far.

Many hospitals cannot cope with seriously injured patients due to a lack of medicine, while the increase in the number of recovered bodies has overwhelmed local officials.

They have not been able to secure enough space for morgues and coffins, while the continuing blackout has made it impossible to create dry ice to pack the bodies, according to the officials.

Meanwhile, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 72,945 buildings had been completely or partially destroyed by the quake as of 11 p.m. Monday.


http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110315x5.html