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Desperate rescue efforts as Japan rains toll hits 75
KUMANO , Japan, July 9, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Rescue workers, police and troops
in Japan battled Monday to reach people feared trapped by devastating
flooding and landslides after days of record rainfall killed at least 75
people.
As the rains finally began to ease, the government said several dozen more
people remain missing.
And the death toll was expected to rise further, with local media reporting
nearly 90 people killed and over 50 others unaccounted for.
The rains are the deadliest weather disaster in Japan since two typhoons
that hit back-to-back in August and September 2011, killing nearly 100
people.
By Monday morning, the downpours had mostly ended across the worst-affected
parts of central and western Japan, where entire villages were engulfed by
flood waters or sudden landslides.
The meteorological agency downgraded its alerts for affected areas, but
authorities warned that the risk of fresh landslides caused by rain-loosened
earth remained high.
In the town of Kumano in Hiroshima prefecture, rescue workers were still
digging through the dirt of a landslide that enveloped homes over the
weekend, crushing some into little more than scrap wood.
Desperate family members of missing locals waited nearby for word of their
relatives.
The nose of a white car was just visible underneath the entire top floor of
one home that had been torn from the rest of a building and swept down a
hillside.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned Sunday that rescue workers faced a
“race against time” to reach people who remained trapped.
More than 54,000 emergency workers, police and troops have been deployed to
help people, with the Self Defense Forces dispatching several planes to help
airlift residents to safety.
– ‘The area became an ocean’ –
In Okayama prefecture, rescue workers flew in helicopters over areas that
are still under flood water and otherwise unreachable, looking for signs of
life.
“As far as we could see from the helicopter, no-one is now waving for
help,” a rescue worker from Kurashiki city told AFP.
Local government officials said pumping trucks were being deployed to help
restore access to some of the worst-hit areas in the area, and with the rains
stopped, water was starting to recede.
“Rescuers had to go by boat yesterday due to flooding but water is
gradually receding today. If the water level drops low enough, they may be
able to access hard-hit areas by road or on foot,” a spokeswoman at the
area’s disaster control office said.
“It’s not raining today but we must stay alert for the possibility of
landslides,” she told AFP.
At one point around five million people were told to evacuate, but the
orders are not mandatory and many people remained at home, becoming trapped
by rapidly rising water or sudden landslides.
In the town of Mihara, roads were transformed into muddy flowing rivers,
with dirt piled up on either side as flood water gushed around the wheels of
stranded cars.
“The area became an ocean,” 82-year-old resident Nobue Kakumoto told AFP
Sunday, surveying the scene.
Several dozen Mihara residents ventured down from shelters on Sunday to
inspect the damage to their homes in the Hongo district of the city, where
many locals are rice farmers.
They found the flood waters had engulfed their rice fields and homes alike.
In the town of Saka, Eiichi Tsuiki opted to stay in his home, and survived
only by moving to the top floor as flood waters rose, washing cars away
outside.
“I’ve lived here for 40 years… I’ve never seen this before,” the 69-year-
old oyster farmer told AFP.
Authorities said high temperatures were forecast for Monday, posing new
challenges for the many people stuck in modestly equipped shelters with few
possessions or damaged homes with no water or electricity.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0833 hrs