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By Tim Kelly, Tom Bateman and Issei Kato<\/p>\n
YATSUSHIRO, Japan, July 30 (Reuters) – Hirosuke Shimada’s home emerged largely unscathed from this week’s earthquake in southwestern Japan, but the violent shaking left him, his wife and \u200ctheir three daughters too frightened to sleep inside, forcing them to live in a tent in the front \u200cyard.<\/p>\n
Across town, carpenter Makoto Sawatari surveyed crumbling plaster, smashed roof tiles and cracked windows, wondering how much it would cost to rebuild his home in \u200bthe coastal city of Yatsushiro, a decade after another major earthquake damaged it.<\/p>\n
Tuesday’s magnitude-7.1 temblor claimed at least 25 lives, but for thousands of survivors \u2014 especially those living near the epicentre in places like Yatsushiro \u2014 psychological and financial scars will endure long after the initial disaster.<\/p>\n
“It was a feeling of, not this again,” said Sawatari, 52, assessing the cost of repairs in the sweltering \u200csummer heat as his wife and other \u2060family members cleaned up inside. “We spent about 10 years getting things back to the way we wanted.”<\/p>\n
He expects the bill could exceed 10 million yen ($61,000), more than double what he spent \u2060after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, which killed more than 260 people and damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of homes.<\/p>\n
A decade on, his breezy, historic city is dotted with collapsed houses. Most homes are without running water and some are without power \u2014 a big \u200bconcern as \u200btemperatures hit 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday. Officials have \u200bgiven no clear timetable for repairing the city’s \u200cshattered infrastructure.<\/p>\n
TOO TERRIFIED TO RETURN<\/p>\n
Outside his tent, Shimada, 46, said his house also survived the 2016 earthquakes intact, which he attributes to its thick beams and firm foundations. Even so his family, including three daughters, the youngest aged 3, were so shaken that they prefer the stuffy canvas shelter to the air-conditioned rooms inside.<\/p>\n
“The house is all right, but I’m still too scared to stay inside,” his wife Yuka said, resting inside the tent.<\/p>\n
Thirty minutes earlier, she had dashed outside when an \u200caftershock jolted the house as she was cooking lunch.<\/p>\n
When the initial \u200bquake hit on Tuesday afternoon, Yuka had hidden beneath a desk at \u200bthe nursery school where she worked before helping evacuate \u200bthe children to the playground. It had terrified her, she said.<\/p>\n
Despite his house failing to withstand \u200ctwo major tremors, Sawatari, the carpenter, said he \u200bwasn’t thinking about abandoning the property.<\/p>\n
“This \u200bis the only place I can live, so it cannot be helped,” he said after spending much of the day trying to salvage items from his home with its uneven floors and cracked walls.<\/p>\n
But it may be \u200bsome time before he can return. \u200cSawatari expects to spend the coming months repairing other people’s houses before he can tend to his own.<\/p>\n
“My \u200bhouse will probably be the last,” he said, with a resigned look.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Tim Kelly, Tom Bateman \u200band Issei Kato; Editing by John Geddie and Sharon Singleton)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n