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Highway near Mt. Usu volcano reopens after 15 months

ABUTA, Japan - Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Chikage Ogi (C) and other officials on June 30 cut tape in front of a tollhouse in Abuta, Hokkaido to reopen a trunk highway section near Mt. Usu. The section was reopened after a 15 month closure due to repairs to damage caused by eruptions from the 732-meter volcano on the northernmost main Japanese island.

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Evacuation order lifted for residents near Mt. Usu

DATE, Japan - Returning home July 18, Mineko Tomiyama looks up at the ceiling of her living room which has been heavily damaged by volcanic rocks from Mt. Usu. The town of Abuta in southwestern Hokkaido, where her house is located, lifted the evacuation order for 285 residents of the west side of the Toya hot-spring district at the foot of the 732-meter volcano.

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Tourists return to hot-spring resort in Hokkaido

DATE, Japan - Business in the eastern part of the Lake Toya hot-spring resort began for two of the seven hotels in the area July 10. Several dozen people have made reservations for July 10 at the two hotels. The town of Abuta reopened its hot spring district to tourists 103 days after evacuation orders were issued shortly before the March 31 eruption of Mt. Usu in southwestern Hokkaido.

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Residents head home after lifting of evacuation order

TOYOURA, Japan - Residents of the town of Abuta nearby Mt. Usu carry their belongings to their car May 24 as they prepare to return home nearly two months after being evacuated following the eruption of the volcano in southwestern Hokkaido.

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Evacuation drills conducted around Mt. Usu

DATE, Japan - Primary school pupils board a Self-Defense Forces truck in Date, a city close to the Mt. Usu volcano in southwestern Hokkaido, on May 18 in evacuation drills participated in by some 700 residents in Date, Sobetsu and Abuta at the foot of the volcano. The 732-meter volcano remains active after erupting March 31 for the first time in nearly 23 years.

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Residents near Mt. Usu allowed to return home temporarily

ABUTA, Japan - Forty-one families, the first group of 878 families given permission to make a 30-minute trip home in the Lake Toya hot-spring resort, on May 16 left the shelter for the first time since their evacuation following the eruption of Mt. Usu in southwestern Hokkaido on March 31. Smoke from the 732-meter volcano, which is still active, can be seen in the background.

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Unmanned kite plane used to observe volcanic activity at Mt. Usu

ABUTA, Japan - The Meteorological Agency on April 24 employs an unmanned kite plane equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) to observe volcanic activity at Mt. Usu, southwestern Hokkaido. Strong winds, however, forced the agency to cancel the observation. The light plane, 2.1 meters long, 2.8 meters across and weighing about 15 kilograms, is capable of automatically flying on a programmed flight route.

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Part-time work offered to evacuees near Mt. Usu

ABUTA, Japan - Women in Abuta, near the Mt. Usu volcano in southwestern Hokkaido, string young scallops on ropes April 20 for growing them in the sea. The Abuta town office began offering this kind of part-time work on coastal scallop farms the same day to about 255 residents who were forced to evacuate the area and became jobless because of the eruption of the mountain March 31.

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Lights go on in homes after two weeks of darkness

ABUTA, Japan - Lights go on again in homes in Abuta, southwestern Hokkaido, on April 13 two weeks after residents evacuated to shelters following the eruption of Mt. Usu on March 31. Earlier in the day, about 4,700 residents of the three municipalities closest to the volcano, including Abuta, were allowed to return home because of a partial lifting of evacuation orders. Smoke from the mountain can be seen in the background.

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Weather agency warns of slides on Mt. Usu

HAKODATE, Japan - Hot mudflows gushing out of craters near Mt. Kompira, which is part of Mt. Usu, reach the town of Abuta, west of the peak, destroying a bridge (center) there April 11. A local observatory of the Meteorological Agency maintained its call for people near the volcano in southwestern Hokkaido to stay alert for possible mud and rock slides.

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Volcanic smoke from Mt. Usu engulfs Lake Toya resort

TOYA, Japan - Volcanic smoke from Mt. Usu, pushed on by strong winds, engulfs the Lake Toya spa-resort district in Hokkaido. The volcano has been erupting since March 31, forcing some 13,000 residents of the three municipalities surrounding to the volcano -- the city of Date and towns of Sobetsu and Abuta -- to evacuate their homes.

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Mudslides from volcano flow into Lake Toya

TOYA, Japan - Mudslides from the Mt. Usu volcano in Abuta in southwestern Hokkaido flow into Lake Toya (foreground) on April 7, with the hot mud sending up clouds of white smoke. Volcanic activity at the 732-meter-high mountain entered its eighth day and volcanologists warned that a violent eruption remains a possibility.

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Mt. Usu crater photographed

SAPPORO, Japan - This photo, taken April 3 from a Kyodo News helicopter, shows a crater on the northwest side of Mt. Usu, which began erupting March 31 for the first time in 23 years. The crater is near an apartment building in the town of Abuta. On April 2, Hiromu Okada, a professor of volcanology at Hokkaido University, said 10 craters had formed on the volcano since the March 31 eruption.

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Volcano smoke pours over deserted town

TOYOURA, Japan - Smoke that spewed from Mt. Usu in southwestern Hokkaido, northern Japan, drifts April 1 over Toya railway station in the deserted town of Abuta at the foot of the volcano. Mt. Usu blew its top again in the morning of April 1, a day after erupting for the first time in nearly 23 years. Residents in the city of Date and the towns of Abuta and Sobetsu, all at the foot of the volcano, have evacuated to public facilities or relatives' homes.

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Volcano could erupt March 30 at earliest: experts

ABUTA, Japan - This photo, taken March 30, shows the Lake Toya hot spring resort at the foot of the volcano Mt. Usu in southwestern Hokkaido. Volcano experts who have been monitoring seismic activity around Mt. Usu said it could erupt as early as March 30 or 31, and within a week at the latest. Some 9,200 residents and travelers near Mt. Usu have evacuated the area, and the possibility of a major volcanic eruption has devastated business at the resort.

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9,200 evacuate for fear of Mt. Usu eruption

ABUTA, Japan - Mt. Usu, in southwestern Hokkaido, is shown in a photo taken March 30. Authorities and local residents have continued to brace for a major eruption by the 732-meter volcano as seismic activity intensified following predictions from experts that it could blow its top in the next few days. About 9,200 residents and travelers near Mt. Usu evacuated the area March 29.

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Expert survey roads damaged in eruption of Mt. Usu

ABUTA, Japan - Experts on May 29 view for the first time the damage to roads in Abuta, a town nearby Mt. Usu in southwestern Hokkaido, caused by the volcano's eruption on March 31. Roads in Izumi in the town (shown in this photo) showed upheaval due to the protracted volcanic activity. The photo was provided by the Ground Self-Defense Force.

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Tremors at Mt. Usu intensify, become more frequent

ABUTA, Japan - A mother and her four children leave for her parents' home during an evacuation of Abuta in southern Hokkaido after tremors at Mt. Usu intensified. Scientists and emergency services officials have been warning local residents to brace for a possible large-scale eruption at the 732-meter-high mountain. Many nearby residents spent the night in emergency shelters, while others prepared to leave their homes to move to the shelters.

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Eruption warning issued for Mt. Usu

ABUTA, Japan - People living near Mt. Usu (shown in photo) in southern Hokkaido are warned March 28 to brace for a possible large volcanic eruption following reports of heightened seismic activity at the mountain. The Meteorological Agency issued an emergency volcano warning at 2:50 a.m. after the frequency of tremors at the 732-meter peak began accelerating. The photo was taken by a Kyodo helicopter.

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