Japan flood toll hits 141; dozens more missing
HIROSHIMA (AP) — Rescuers were combing through mud-covered hillsides and along riverbanks yesterday searching for dozens of people missing after heavy rains unleashed flooding and mudslides in southwestern Japan, where the death toll rose to 141.
More than 50 people were unaccounted for as of yesterday morning, many in the hardest-hit Hiroshima area. Work under the scorching sun was hampered by mud and heat, and shipments of relief goods were delayed by damaged roads and transportation systems, especially in areas isolated by the disaster.
“No water, food, nothing gets here,” Ichiro Tanabe, a 73-year-old Kure resident, told the Mainichi newspaper. “We are going to be all dried up if we continue to be isolated.”
The landslides and flooding across much of western Japan have killed at least 134 people, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. Another seven were presumed dead.
Some of the thousands of residents who had been evacuated, some rescued from their rooftops, began cleaning up after the rain stopped on Monday.
Suga said the government set up a taskforce and was spending $18 million to hasten deliveries of supplies and other support for evacuation centers and residents in the region.
Earlier yesterday, the Self-Defense Force ferried seven oil trucks from Hiroshima to Kure, a major industrial city whose 226,000 residents were cut off from the rest of the prefecture due to the disaster.
Thousands of homes were still without clean water and electricity in Hiroshima and other hard-hit areas. Residents lined up for water under the scorching sun as temperatures rose to 35o Celsius, raising risks of heat stroke.