Japanese rescuers search for survivors as downpours raise new landslide risks

KUMANO, JAPAN — Desperate relatives braced for bad news Monday as rescuers dug through landslides in the wake of severe floods that have killed at least 100 people and left swathes of central and western Japan under water.

As floods receded, emergency workers were able to reach previously cut-off places where authorities fear they could find more bodies in the wreckage of homes devastated by rivers of mud and debris.

“I have asked my family to prepare for the worst,” said Kosuke Kiyohara, 38, as he waited for word of his sister and her two young sons.

“I can’t reach her phone,” he told AFP, sitting across from a house that had been ripped apart and tossed on its side by a huge landslide.

At the end of last week rivers engorged by more than a meter ( three feet) of rain burst their banks, engulfing entire villages and forcing people to rooftops to await evacuation by helicopter.

Hillsides gave way under the weight of water, with deadly landslides crushing wooden houses and erasing roads.

On Monday morning, with the sun finally out and temperatures rising, rescue workers dug through mud in a desperate search for survivors, or victims.

The government said at least 100 people had been killed, and with many people still missing, the tally was expected to rise further.

“A total of 73,000 police, fire department, Self-Defence Forces and Japan Coast Guard personnel, with 700 helicopters, are doing their best as part of the rescue effort,” government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said.

In Kumano, soldiers and other emergency workers were using diggers to clear crushed cars and mangled homes. But they were moving carefully, looking as they went for survivors, or the remains of those killed in the disaster.

In neighboring Okayama prefecture, rescue workers flew in helicopters over areas that are still submerged and otherwise unreachable, looking for signs of life. “As far as we could see from the helicopter, no- one is now waving for help,” a rescue worker from Kurashiki city told AFP.

Even as the rains let up, authorities warned the downpours had loosened earth on hillsides and mountain slopes creating new risks. —