25 missing after flood hits northeastern Japan
Torrential rains kept pounding Japan following the passing Wednesday of Typhoon Etau, with the weather agency advising early Friday maximum caution against a potentially unprecedented downpour for northeastern Japan's Miyagi Prefecture. The Shibui River in the Miyagi city of Osaki burst its banks around 5 a.m. Friday over a span of more than 10 meters, flooding nearby residential areas, city officials said. Police said more than 40 people in Osaki are likely stranded by the waters, Kyodo reports. Earlier in Sendai, capital of Miyagi, more than 410,000 people were advised to evacuate. In Joso, which is located in Ibaraki Prefecture about 50 kilometers north of Tokyo, hundreds of people were left stranded overnight awaiting rescue at home or in commercial buildings in inundated areas after the Kinugawa River burst its banks over a span of approximately 140 meters. Disaster management minister Eriko Yamatani said the government will "extend maximum support for local municipalities that are scrambling to secure relief supplies and establish shelters." A Joso city official said Friday that as of 9:45 a.m. 25 residents remained unaccounted for. City officials said they are struggling to confirm the safety and whereabouts of the missing people. As of 9 a.m., 5,815 evacuees were spread across 32 shelters in Joso, but 1,680 of those were at three facilities cut off by floodwaters, the officials said. The Kinugawa River banks were breached for the first time in 66 years, flooding an area with some 6,500 homes stretching across roughly 32 square km. In Joso, more than 10,000 households are believed to have suffered flood damage. The Joso City Hall, accommodating about 400 evacuees, was also flooded and without power. In nearby Tochigi Prefecture, flooded rivers and mudslides were reported, killing one person and leaving another critically injured. Record levels of rainfall were logged in Miyagi early Friday morning, with total falls since last Sunday far exceeding averages for the whole of September in some areas. Heavy rain is expected to continue until around noon in the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan. Takuya Deshimaru, director of the Japan Meteorological Agency's forecast division, told a press conference that the situation in Miyagi is "abnormal" and the area faces "grave danger." He called on people in the region to take appropriate measures to ensure their safety. A severe rain warning for Tochigi and Ibaraki was lifted Friday morning. The infrastructure ministry has mobilized five water pumping vehicles for drainage operations at the Kinugawa River and is planning to summon further assistance from its fleet. The ministry is also sending experts to the area to check river bank damage. Infrastructure minister Akihiro Ota said emergency works to repair Kinugawa River dikes will start later in the day. The works are expected to be completed in about a week, he added. Rescuers from the Self-Defense Forces used a helicopter to pluck Masao Sakai, 64, from a precarious position atop a utility pole in muddy stream in Joso. They reported that he was panicked and could not speak due to fatigue, having spent some time submerged in flood waters. Kentaro Sato, a 23-year-old male nurse, was at a loss, saying, "I don't know what to do as my house was inundated. Power and water are not available." A woman in her 70s who took refuge at a local elementary school in Joso said she could not do anything for her neighbor who she saw waving a towel from a balcony in a call for help. "I cannot find any of my neighbors at this shelter. I'm so worried about them and feel lonely," she said. A 44-year-old Peruvian man who fled to the shelter with his wife and two children said he could never have imagined that a river might overflow. The man, who came to Japan about 10 years ago, said he is concerned about his friend who cannot speak Japanese. The flood damage occurred exactly four and a half years after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami disaster that hit Miyagi and other areas in Japan's northeast. Hidetaka Kawabata, 39, a Fukushima evacuee who lives in a temporary housing in the prefecture, said scenes of the muddy waters in Ibaraki reminded him of the situation at the time of the quake-tsunami disaster.
