The occupants of the last evacuation center for people displaced by the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis will find new homes by the end of this year, the mayor of an evacuated town in Fukushima Prefecture said Wednesday.
"We will step forward to rebuild their lives," Shiro Izawa, mayor of Futaba, which hosts the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex, told reporters after a town assembly meeting.
As of Tuesday, seven evacuees from Futaba were living in the center in a former high school building in Kazo, Saitama Prefecture. All seven people, each 60 or older, have found new accommodations, according to the municipal government.
"We will continue providing administrative services to the evacuees so they will not feel inconvenienced," Izawa said.
The entire population of Futaba was evacuated in the wake of the nuclear crisis, and the municipal government was transferred to the former school building before moving again to Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, last June.
The evacuation center will officially shut down early next year following maintenance work, Izawa said.