Some schools reopen in Japan's areas hardest-hit by New Year's earthquake

Two weeks after the deadly New Year’s Day earthquake struck Japan’s north-central region of Noto, some schools reopened and limited garbage collection resumed.

Two weeks after the deadly New Year's Day earthquake struck Japan's north-central region of Noto, some schools reopened and limited garbage collection resumed on January 15 in rare hopeful signs amid the devastation that thousands of people still face in the area.

The magnitude 7.6 earthquake on January 1 killed at least 222 people and injured thousands. More than 20 are still missing.

About 20,000 people, most of whom had their homes damaged or destroyed, have been sheltering in nearly 400 school gymnasiums, community centres an other makeshift facilities, according to the Central Government and the Ishikawa prefecture disaster data released Monday.

Also Read | Japanese PM visits earthquake-hit zone, vows support

Classes restarted at nearly 20 elementary, junior high and high schools Monday in some of the hardest-hit towns, including Wajima and Noto, and many students returned, but some, whose families were badly hit by the quake, were absent.

“I'm so glad to see you are back safely,” Keiko Miyashita, principal of the Kashima elementary school in the town of Wajima, on the northern coast of the Noto Peninsula, told schoolchildren.

Most of the schools in the prefecture have restarted but about 50 are indefinitely closed due to quake damage. At Ushitsu elementary school in the town of Noto, children gathered for just one hour Monday. Classes are to fully resume next week.