Rescuers in Kyushu are scrambling to find more than 20 people missing after huge floods swept across the nation’s south this week, killing six and leaving a trail of destruction.
Thousands of rescuers have been fighting through thick mud and battling the rain to search for missing and stranded people, with more than 1,100 believed to be cut off, public broadcaster NHK said.
The government yesterday said that six had been killed, while 22 remain unaccounted for.
NHK footage showed rescuers removing the body of a victim from a damaged home and heavy machines moving rocks and dirt to clean roads.
Local authorities were dispatching helicopters to pluck people out of isolation, NHK said, showing footage of stranded elderly residents being rescued.
It added that local authorities were rushing to restore access to regions cut off by the landslides and floods.
In Oita Prefecture’s Hita City, Masayoshi Arakawa said he had experienced heavy rains in the past, but this year’s deluge was unexpected.
“A few years ago I had no problems, so I thought that’s how it would go again, and so I decided to spend the night at my house last night,” he said late on Thursday at an evacuation shelter. “But when I went out to see how it was outside, I became frightened.”
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that about 12,000 police, military, firefighters and coast guard personnel were taking part in rescue operations.
They had recovered 522 people as of Thursday, and a further 15 yesterday.
“Heavy rain is forecast to continue intermittently,” Suga said, calling for continued vigilance. “I would like people in the disaster zone to pay full attention to evacuation information.”
In Hita, Katsuko Noda was also among those forced to flee her home.
“A neighbor came to see me and told me that there was a landslide and that the water could reach us, so I took my bag without further delay and I came to take refuge here,” Katsuko Noda said at the evacuation shelter.
Heavy rain and landslide warnings remained in place yesterday.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said it expects up to 25cm of torrential downpours in the 24 hours until this morning.
“Due to sustained heavy rainfall, the area is seeing increased risk of landslides,” the weather agency said, adding some areas of northern Kyushu had experienced “unprecedented” rainfall.
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