TOKYO: Six people have died after heavy rains triggered floods and landslides on a Japanese peninsula that is recovering from an earthquake, local media reported on Monday (Sep 23).
Public broadcaster NHK and other outlets said six were dead, while a fire department official told AFP that one had died and five were “in a state of cardio-respiratory arrest”, a term used in Japan before a feared death can be confirmed by a doctor.
The regional government in Ishikawa on the Sea of Japan coast said two were missing and the status of eight people was unknown.
Heavy rain pounded Ishikawa from Saturday, with more than 540mm recorded in the city of Wajima over 72 hours, the heaviest continuous rain since comparative data became available.
The region is still reeling from a 7.5-magnitude quake at the start of the year, which toppled buildings, triggered tsunami waves and sparked a major fire.
Floodwaters inundated emergency housing built for those who had lost their homes in the New Year’s Day quake, which killed at least 374 people, according to Ishikawa government figures.
On Monday, a total of 4,000 households were left without power after the rain, according to the Hokuriku Electric Power Company.
More than 100 areas in the region were isolated, with roads blocked due to landslides.
Akemi Yamashita, a 54-year-old Wajima resident, told AFP she had been driving on Saturday when “within only 30 minutes or so, water gushed into the street and quickly rose to half the height of my car”.
“I was talking to other residents of Wajima yesterday, and they said, ‘it’s so heart-breaking to live in this city’. I got teary when I heard that,” she said, describing the earthquake and floods as “like something from a movie”.
