East Japan wracked by floods, mudslides
150,000 ordered to leave homes
TOKYO — About150,000 people were ordered to leave their homes Thursday as torrential rains, flooding and mudslides slammed eastern Japan, local media reported.
Ten people were reported to be missing, including at least nine residents who were swept away after the Kinugawa river breached its banks in Joso city, 40 kilometres northeast of Tokyo.
The floodwaters inundated hundreds of houses and left about 200 residents stranded, news agency Jiji Press reported.
One woman was missing after mudslides triggered by heavy rain struck her house in Kanuma city, broadcaster NHK said.
About 100 people in the region were rescued by helicopter, Jiji said.
Television footage showed a bridge washed away by a swollen river in the northeastern town of Minami Aizu and some houses swept away in Kanuma city.
In the city of Nikko, north of Tokyo, one man was feared dead after he fell into a ditch and suffered “cardiopulmonary arrest,” broadcaster NHK reported.
The total rainfall has topped 600 millimetres in the city since Monday, a level not seen in decades, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The region “is facing an imminent grave danger,” Takuya Deshimaru, a meteorological agency official, told a news conference Thursday morning, referring to the prefectures of Ibaraki and Tochigi.
The agency warned of further mudslides and swollen rivers in eastern and northeastern Japan with heavy rain pounding the region even after typhoon Etau weakened into an extratropical depression.