Rain pounds central Japan, 55 feared dead in south

KURUME, Japan (AFP) — Torrential rain pounded the centre of Japan on Wednesday as authorities said 55 people were feared dead in days of heavy downpours that have triggered devastating landslides and terrifying floods.

Rains that began early Saturday on the island of Kyushu have already caused widespread damage across a swathe of the southwestern portion of the country, causing rivers to burst their banks and hillsides to collapse.

The weather front was now moving north, and on Wednesday morning the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued warnings for Gifu and Nagano prefectures in central Japan, though it downgraded the advisories from its top level by midday.

“In these areas, heavy rains are at an unprecedented level,” a JMA official said at an early morning briefing.

“Especially in areas designated as high risk for landslides and flooding, the possibility is extremely high that some kind of disaster is already happening,” he warned.

At least 80,000 rescue workers have already been deployed in a desperate effort to reach survivors stranded by flooding and landslides.

Late Tuesday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to double the number of troops involved in the rescue effort to 20,000.

The toll in the disaster has risen steadily as rescue workers discover new casualties.

Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said 52 deaths had been confirmed with three more people feared dead.

The toll is expected to rise, with more than a dozen people reported missing, and authorities investigating whether six additional deaths are linked to the disaster.

Non-mandatory evacuation orders have now been issued for 1.4 million people, with millions more under lower-level warnings.

But the coronavirus has complicated evacuation efforts, with the need to maintain social distancing reducing capacity at shelters. At some facilities, cardboard walls were set up to separate families and try to reduce the risk of infection.