The search for missing people in areas hit by heavy rainfall in the Kyushu region continued on Friday. The Kumamoto prefectural government announced another death in the rain disaster on the day, bringing the total to 63.
Due to low pressure that emerged on a stationary front, torrential rain again fell mainly in the region early Friday morning. The atmospheric depression is expected to move northeastward across the Sea of Japan, causing localized downpours in wide areas from western Japan to the Tohoku region through Saturday.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, warm and moist air is flowing in with the low pressure, keeping the front active. The agency said the 24-hour rain forecast to 6 a.m. Saturday is 300 millimeters in the northern Kyushu region, 250 millimeters in the Shikoku region, 150 millimeters in the Tokai and southern Kyushu regions, and 120 millimeters in the Kanto-Koshin and Chugoku regions.
The front is expected to remain stationary, and heavy rain is expected to continue after Sunday. In some areas, the ground has been loosened by torrential rain, while water levels rose in some rivers. The agency has warned that a disaster could happen anywhere.
As of Friday morning, a total of 16 people are missing in Kumamoto, Oita and Kagoshima prefectures. In the Fukuhama district of Tsunagi, Kumamoto Prefecture, where one person died and two went missing after their houses were destroyed by a landslide, about 140 members of the Self-Defense Forces and police searched for the two from Friday morning. Using heavy machinery, they removed a large amount of soil, sand and fallen trees piled up to about five meters high under occasional rain.
Meanwhile, in the village of Kuma in the prefecture, rescue activities continued for residents in communities isolated due to the flooding of the Kuma River.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
An elderly person is rescued from a community that was isolated by flooding in the Kuma River and transported by helicopter in Kuma, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Friday morning.
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