8,000 remain evacuated 1 week on from Kumamoto quake as heat persists

People unload relief supplies donated by the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Aug. 3, 2026. (Kyodo)

Residents collect water from a tanker truck at an evacuation center in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Aug. 4, 2026, as water supplies remain disrupted following a powerful earthquake that struck the southwestern Japan prefecture on July 28. (Kyodo)

Photo taken on Aug. 4, 2026, shows disaster waste being brought to a temporary dump site in Hikawa, Kumamoto Prefecture. (Kyodo)

A man pours water over himself while taking a break from cleaning up his damaged family home in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Aug. 3, 2026, after a powerful earthquake struck the southwestern Japan prefecture on July 28. (Kyodo)

Disaster waste is brought to a temporary storage site in Hikawa, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Aug. 4, 2026, following a powerful earthquake that struck the southwestern Japan prefecture on July 28. (Kyodo)

Disaster waste is pictured at a temporary storage site in Hikawa, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Aug. 4, 2026, following a powerful earthquake that struck the southwestern Japan prefecture on July 28. (Kyodo)

Photo taken on Aug. 3, 2026, shows a Nippon Paper Industries Co. plant with its smokestack broken in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, following a powerful earthquake that struck the southwestern Japan prefecture on July 28. (Kyodo)

KUMAMOTO, Japan - A week on from a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture in southwestern Japan, over 8,000 people remain in evacuation shelters as water outages persisted amid extreme heat on Tuesday.

People were taking refuge in 150 evacuation shelters, with about 12,000 buildings estimated to have been damaged in the quake, according to the prefecture.

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8,000 remain evacuated 1 week on from Kumamoto quake as heat persists

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