Four days after a powerful earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture in southwestern Japan, the disaster has entered a second and more insidious phase — one measured not in tremors but in degrees. With 38 confirmed dead, nearly 47,000 households without water, and thousands sheltering in cars and evacuation centers beneath a summer sun pushing past 35 degrees Celsius, the crisis has become a compound one. The death of an elderly woman from heatstroke in a fuel-empty car stands as a quiet, devastating signal that the earth's violence has given way to a slower, more patient threat.
Kumamoto quake death toll reaches 38 as heat poses new threat to evacuees
38 deaths confirmed including one woman who died from heatstroke while sheltering in a car; thousands displaced across evacuation centers and makeshift shelters.