In the aftermath of the powerful earthquakes that struck Kyushu, evacuated homes and other buildings have fallen prey to burglars, officials of the National Police Agency said Thursday.

With as many as 89,000 people still taking shelter at evacuation facilities in Kumamoto Prefecture amid ongoing aftershocks, protecting evacuees’ property is one of the challenges in the disaster-affected areas.

But an expert pointed to difficulties in taking drastic measures, saying, “There is no other way but to tighten security.”

Since the magnitude-6.5 quake on the night of April 14, a total of 17 burglaries of homes and facilities, including a ryokan, or Japanese-style inn, were confirmed as of Thursday in municipalities in the prefecture, such as the city of Kumamoto and the towns of Mashiki and Mifune, according to the NPA. Of them, 11 cases involved homes whose occupants were evacuated.

The April 14 temblor and a magnitude-7.3 earthquake on Saturday, believed to be the strongest of the quakes so far, both measured 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, the highest reading.

Damage from theft has not been confirmed in the Kumamoto Prefecture village of Minamiaso, which was hit by massive landslides sparked by quakes.

But as the homes of many evacuated residents have been damaged due to the quakes and the landslides, many are worried about falling victim to thieves.

A 67-year-old man staying at a shelter in Minamiaso said, “Even if the front door is locked, anybody can enter my house, because windows have been broken.”

Similar theft cases occurred in the aftermath of deadly landslides in Hiroshima in 2014 and massive flooding in the city of Joso, Ibaraki Prefecture, in 2015.

Takehiko Yamamura, head of the Tokyo-based Disaster Prevention System Institute, said, “Soon after a disaster occurs, the emphasis is placed on life-saving and prevention of secondary disasters, instead of security.

“Many afflicted areas are dark at nighttime due to blackouts, resulting in an increase in the number of theft cases,” Yamamura said.

He added that homes in damaged areas tend to be targeted by such crimes even after electricity supply is restored as many residents turn off the circuit breakers in their homes when they are evacuated to minimize fire risks.

In the areas hit by the Kyushu quakes, many houses are empty although they have been undamaged by the disaster, because their occupants, for example, opt to spend nights in cars for fear of their houses collapsing, Yamamura noted.

Still, he said that residents are expected to begin organizing anti-crime patrols by themselves when the aftershocks begin to subside.