50 dead in Japan floods
TSUNAGI - Emergency services in western Japan were “racing against time” yesterday to rescue people stranded by devastating floods and landslides that have killed at least 50, as the country braced for more torrential downpours.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued its secondhighest emergency warning for heavy rain and landslides over vast swathes of the country’s southwest and said “risks are rising” nationwide.
Television footage showed swollen rivers breaking their banks and sweeping away bridges while landslides destroyed roads and buried houses, complicating access for the 80 000 rescue personnel battling to save lives.
At least 50 deaths have been confirmed in the rains that began early Saturday, top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said, but the toll is expected to rise, with four more feared dead and over a dozen reported missing.
He warned that more heavy rain was forecast over the next two days, saying: “Even a small amount of rainfall could cause a disaster. I would like people to be on full alert against landslides and floods.”
In the hardest-hit region of Kumamoto, on the southwest tip of Japan, disaster management official Yutaro Hamasaki said: “We are racing against time.”
“We have not set any deadline or time to end the operation, but we really need to speed up our search as time is running out. We won’t give up to the end,” Hamasaki told AFP.
At an elementary school in Omuta city, dozens of children and their teachers spent the night sheltering on the upper floor of the building after floodwater inundated the ground level.
“Shoe cupboards on the group floor were swept away and shoes were floating around,” an 11-year-old girl told a local newspaper after rescuers arrived.
“Some children were sobbing because they were worried about not being able to get home and were afraid of the heavy rain.”
Kentaro Oishi, who owns a rafting business in the hot springs resort of Hitoyoshi City, told AFP that emergency services drafted him in to rescue stranded locals.
“I have 20 years of rafting experience, but I never dreamed” of rowing the boat through the city, the veteran paddler told AFP.
“To tell you the truth, I was so scared at first when I saw the water levels rising so rapidly in the river.”