Floods and landslides killed one person and left at least 11 missing in central Japan, with recovery teams yesterday working in a remote peninsula already devastated by a major earthquake this year.
“Unprecedented” heavy rains that lashed the area from Saturday began to subside, leaving muddy scenes of destruction as the national weather agency urged people to stay vigilant for loose ground and other dangers.
In Wajima, splintered branches and a huge uprooted tree piled up at a bridge over a river whose raging brown waters almost reached ground level.
Photo: JIJI Press via AFP
People were wading into the mud to try to dig out half-buried vehicles, while elsewhere flood waters inundated emergency housing built for those who had lost their homes in the New Year’s Day earthquake that killed at least 318 people.
Akemi Yamashita, a 54-year-old resident, said that she had been driving on Saturday when “within only 30 minutes or so, water gushed into the street and quickly rose to half the height of my car.”
“I was talking to other residents of Wajima yesterday, and they said: ‘It’s so heartbreaking to live in this city.’ I got teary when I heard that,” she said, describing the earthquake and floods as “like something from a movie.”
Photo: Kyodo via Reuters
Eight temporary housing complexes were affected in Wajima and Suzu, two of the cities on the Noto Peninsula ravaged by the magnitude 7.5 quake, which toppled buildings, triggered tsunami waves and sparked a major fire.
More than 540mm of rainfall was recorded in Wajima in the 72 hours to yesterday morning — the heaviest continuous rain since comparative data became available in 1976.
Landslides blocked roads, complicating rescue efforts, and tens of thousands of people in the wider region were urged to evacuate.
Hideaki Sato, 74, stood on a bridge holding a blue umbrella, anxiously looking at the swollen water in a small canal.
“My house was flattened completely in the quake,” he said.
“I now live in a small apartment room right there,” he said, pointing at a wooden structure behind him. “If this floods, it would be a real problem.”
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