“The one non-negotiable I have is washing and sanitising our hands after going to the toilet, given it’s the season when infections can spread quickly,” she added.
Bitter cold is also posing a challenge, especially for scores of residents who are sleeping in their cars after their homes were wrecked. The area was hit by heavy snow over the past week and authorities have warned of a risk of landslides.
“This life is becoming the norm – I think we can get through it,” Terashita said. “Well, we have no other choice.”
Over 900 deaths from the devastating Kobe earthquake of 1995 happened after the quake, due in part to the spread of flu and lack of medical care at evacuation centres, according to public health experts.
Authorities in Ishikawa prefecture are set to begin vaccinating evacuees for influenza on Thursday (Feb 1).
Around mid-afternoon on Tuesday at a primary school in Suzu, where around 4,800 houses still have no water, children played on the swings while locals gathered around a communal water tank that has become a lifeline for many.
As evening fell, residents gathered to bathe in a makeshift public bath set up at the school by soldiers sent in to help with relief work – an improvement from immediately after the quake when people would queue for an hour in the rain for 5 litres of water.
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