TOKYO (Reuters) -U.S. military helicopters in Japan will deploy to the earthquake-hit Noto peninsula on the country’s west coast to help with relief efforts, Japanese Defence Minister Minoru Kihara said on Tuesday.
Japan has asked the U.S. forces to help deliver relief materials as its Self-Defence Forces are currently focusing on transporting evacuees, Kihara said.
“From Wednesday, January 17 on, the U.S. forces in Japan plan to transport relief goods to Noto airport with UH-60 helicopters for disaster victims, while using the Air Self-Defence Force’s Komatsu base as headquarters,” Kihara said.
More than 220 people are confirmed to have died in the Jan. 1 quake that destroyed thousands of homes, vital infrastructure including roads, bridges and port facilities, and knocked out power in the isolated area.
Relief efforts have also been hampered by strong aftershocks that rescuers fear could trigger landslides and further damage weakened structures.
Authorities have been warning survivors, many of whom are living in evacuation centres, to guard against freezing temperatures with heavy snow hitting the area in recent days.
The quake is Japan’s deadliest since 2016 when quakes in the southwestern region of Kumamoto claimed 276 lives. U.S. forces have been stationed in Japan since World War II, marking the country’s biggest military presence abroad.
(Reporting by Yukiko Toyoda, Nobuhiro Kubo, Tim Kelly, Kaori Kaneko, Kiyoshi Takenaka; Writing by John Geddie; Editing by Michael Perry)
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