Japan earthquake leaves visible destruction and invisible threats

The 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck ‌southern Japan toppled houses and split open streets in the small city of Yatsushiro, but town official Akio Matsushita is most worried about the invisible threats from the lack of water and power amid the punishing summer heat, Reuters writes.

Many of the port city’s roughly 58,000 households were still without running water or power on Thursday, two days since the quake hit Kumamoto prefecture. Matsushita, who is helping lead relief efforts, said he had no idea whether it would take ​days, weeks or months to repair the badly damaged water mains.

The Kumamoto prefectural government said the death toll from the earthquake was now at 17 — the majority of them at Nippon Paper Industries’ paper mill, which ​suffered major structural damage, and at Aeon’s shopping mall, where a possible gas explosion occurred.