TOKYO (AP) — Residents in Japan's quake-hit southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto put out heaps of debris for collection as the region baked under intense heat.
The heat and a lack of water supplies have added to the challenges in the severely damaged areas where Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi briefly visited for the first time since a magnitude 7.1 quake hit Kumamoto Prefecture on Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday.
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Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi visits an evacuation center in Hikawa, southern Japan, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (Japan Pool/Kyodo News via AP)
Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets evacuees as she visits an evacuation center in Hikawa, southern Japan, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (Japan Pool/Kyodo News via AP)
People rest at an evacuation center in Uki, southern Japan, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, after recent earthquakes. (Yuta Omori/Kyodo News via AP)
A person rides a bicycle past damaged buildings in Hikawa, southern Japan, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, following a July 28 earthquake. (Taichi Nagahisa/Kyodo News via AP)
Thirty-eight people died during the quake, including one who died of apparent heat stroke while taking shelter in a car in hot weather and one other whose cause of death is still being investigated, prefectural officials said Monday.
Residents put out heaps of debris, broken furniture and damaged appliances for collection, while in the towns of Uki and Hikawa, construction of temporary housing began. Some hotels and inns are offering their rooms for evacuees.
More than 46,000 households remained without water and many also faced fuel shortages as the region suffers sweltering heat, stoking fears of heat-related illness. Japan Meteorological Agency predicted that temperatures would rise close to 40 C (104 F) Monday.
More than 8,500 people remain at crowded emergency shelters, such as converted community centers, school gyms and classrooms, many of which lack air-conditioning. Others are sleeping in cars at town hall parking lots and parks, or outside of their homes.
Experts have long warned that inadequate shelter provision leads to crowded conditions and a lack of sanitation and privacy for people forced to leave their homes following disasters.
Takaichi on Monday flew over the affected areas from an army helicopter and visited one of the area's best-equipped shelters, with cardboard beds, partitions and air-conditioning, triggering criticisms on social media that her visit distorted reality.
Kumamoto Gov. Takashi Kimura, in his meeting with Takaichi, stressed the “abnormal heat" has been pounding on the already difficult lives of the residents. He sought further government support to improve the living conditions at evacuation centers, saying many of them lack clean water and medical care.
“While taking into consideration the governor's requests, we will quickly examine what the government can do for the disaster-hit region and affected people and move proactively,” Takaichi said.
Meanwhile, a company that owned a general store in a collapsed shopping mall acknowledged that it had instructed two employees who were killed in a later explosion to return to the building to put sales proceeds into a safe.
Two executives of Habita, a local general store operator that had a shop inside the collapsed Aeon Mall in the town of Kashima, attended the wake Sunday of one of the two victims, 22-year-old Kurumi Otake, and apologized to her parents for the death.
Company sales manager Goji Yuse acknowledged that the company instructed the two to put sales proceeds into the safe if it was possible.
“I wish someone had stopped her,” Otake's tearful mother told them. “My daughter is not coming back.”
The mall's operator said it believes the explosion was due to a gas leak and occurred after about 3,000 shoppers had been evacuated to a parking lot following the quake, but some employees remained inside. Rescuers recovered five people and the bodies of seven others from the mall.
The earthquake has left 114 people injured across Kumamoto, authorities said.
Some 700 homes were destroyed, and more than 11,300 buildings were damaged, according to Kumamoto prefecture.
Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi visits an evacuation center in Hikawa, southern Japan, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (Japan Pool/Kyodo News via AP)
Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets evacuees as she visits an evacuation center in Hikawa, southern Japan, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (Japan Pool/Kyodo News via AP)
People rest at an evacuation center in Uki, southern Japan, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, after recent earthquakes. (Yuta Omori/Kyodo News via AP)
A person rides a bicycle past damaged buildings in Hikawa, southern Japan, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, following a July 28 earthquake. (Taichi Nagahisa/Kyodo News via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — Crews operating heavy equipment hoisted chunks of debris Thursday in the search for more victims in the rubble of a collapsed Brooklyn apartment building that killed at least eight people, including two children.
The three-story building gave way while construction workers were digging Wednesday afternoon at an adjacent lot, causing New York City's mayor to order inspections at about 100 building sites involving companies related to the project.
“If there is anyone, or any entity, operating in this city that bears responsibility for what happened, we will hold them fully accountable," Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during a news conference.
Investigators have not determined what caused the collapse that injured 18 others, including four firefighters, Mamdani said.
One witness said he watched bricks fall minutes before the disaster while a woman in a neighboring building said she and fellow residents blamed vibrations from the construction for cracks that appeared in their apartment walls.
Emergency workers used power saws and pickaxes to get through the debris, pulling four victims out of the rubble in the early hours of Thursday. Hours later, excavators removed larger piles of the wreckage so searchers could get deeper into the construction pit, said New York Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore.
“We always assume there are more people there until we can access the ground,” Bonsignore said. “So until we remove some of the bigger debris and are able to search beneath them, this will remain a rescue operation”
Among those killed and injured were people from Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Trinidad, Mamdani said. Two of the dead were construction workers, he said.
He described how some workers who survived joined firefighters in digging out survivors, thanking “those who ran toward danger when this building collapsed, and in the hours afterward.”
James Williams, who works at a deli across the street, said he heard loud banging at the site all day Wednesday and looked outside to see bricks falling. “Two minutes later, the building collapsed,” he said.
As the building crumbled and exposed the neighboring building, Williams spotted a woman on a staircase. “There wasn’t anything I could do,” he said, his voice cracking.
Customers and stylists at a nearby hair salon jumped up and ran onto the sidewalk as the building fell.
“We heard the boom and we all rushed outside and saw smoke and dust everywhere,” said hairstylist Brigitte Anama.
She saw emergency workers pulling people from the rubble, including what appeared to be a child. “People were saying, ‘Pray for the baby, pray for the baby,’” Anama said.
Dervie Mapp, who lives along the construction site, said she and others complained for months about the project. Her landlord brought engineers into the building, but residents never received an inspection report, she said.
This was the second high-profile structural problem with a building in New York in the past five months. In July, several buildings in Manhattan were evacuated after support columns buckled inside a skyscraper that was formerly the headquarters of Pfizer.
First responders in Brooklyn worked to clear through a massive heap that included mattresses, a broken sink and a refrigerator tossed on its side. Among the belongings scattered in the rubble were vinyl records, clothes and shoes.
Rescue dogs sniffed piles of twisted wood and brick dotted with brightly colored clothing.
Firefighters pulled a pregnant woman from the rubble Wednesday, hoisted her up on a stretcher and rushed her to a waiting ambulance. Others were rescued as the night wore on.
The fire commissioner said the search would not end despite heavy rain Thursday afternoon.
Building records show there were four apartments on the upper two floors and a commercial unit on the ground floor of the collapsed building.
The Consulate of Ecuador in New York said José Luis Caguana Cosquillo from Ecuador was among those found dead.
His brother told WNBC-TV that he died while working at the construction site. He was an immigrant from Ecuador who had been in the U.S. for about six years and had a pregnant wife and a young child, Carlos Caguana said.
“He was the sole provider for the family. Now that he’s gone, she is going through an immense amount of pain,” Caguana said.
The surrounding blocks along Flatbush Avenue, a busy thoroughfare in Brooklyn, are tightly packed with mostly older brick buildings and a few newly built apartment complexes. A mix of Caribbean and Mexican restaurants reflects the diversity of the neighborhood.
New York City’s buildings commissioner, Ahmed Tigani, said Wednesday that construction workers were excavating the empty lot next door when the building buckled. The city’s Department of Buildings is investigating what caused the collapse.
The architect, property owner and general contractor listed in city records have not responded to phone and email messages seeking comment.
City officials said a stop work order was issued in March after inspectors concluded the building next door was being demolished without adequate overhead protection such as netting to shield neighboring buildings, the department said in an emailed statement.
In April, inspectors found that the demolition work had resumed in violation of the stop work order, the department said. Work was allowed to continue in May after the problems were corrected, it said.
The project has active permits for excavation and foundation work.
McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writers Yuki Iwamura in New York; Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa; R.J. Rico in Atlanta; Laura Turbay in Little Rock, Arkansas; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
Members of the FDNY work at the site of a building that collapsed the previous day in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Personal belongings are seen at a damaged building next to the site of a building that collapsed the previous day in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York City Department of Buildings employees stand on a rooftop during their investigation of a building that collapsed the previous day in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A view of the site where a building collapsed the previous day in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Employees of NYC department of buildings investigating the rooftop of the building next to a building, that collapsed the previous day, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
First responders rescue a person after a building collapsed in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Officials work at the site of a building that collapsed the previous day in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Members of the FDNY work at the site of a building that collapsed the previous day in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Heavy machinery works at the site of a building that collapsed the previous day in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A view of the site where a building collapsed the previous day in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
First responders work the scene after a building collapsed in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
First responders rescue a person after a building collapsed after a building collapsed in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
First responders work the scene after a building collapsed in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
First responders rescue a person after a building collapsed after a building collapsed in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
First responders work the scene after a building collapsed in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
