At least one person has been left dead and several others are missing following landslides and floods in Japan’s north-central region of Noto on Saturday. These disastrous events were triggered by heavy rains, after which the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued its highest “life-threatening” alert level for heavy rain across several cities in the Ishikawa region.
Sugimoto Satoshi, a JMA forecaster, said that the level of downpours recorded had “never been experienced in this region before”, and added that the risk to residents’ lives is “imminent”.
The severe flooding caused rivers to overflow, flooded homes and left many people in the region stranded. The rain is also forecasted to continue with up to 20cm (7.8in) to fall within the next 24 hours through midday on Sunday, due to the rain bands that caused torrential rain above the Hokuriku region, The Guardian reported citing JMA.
According to Hokuriku Electric Power Co, about 6,500 homes were left without power while some homes did not have water. In addition, traffic lights were no longer functioning as swaths of roads were blocked by muddy water.
“Heavy rain is hitting the region that had been badly damaged by the Noto earthquake, and I believe many people are feeling very uneasy,” said Yoshimasa Hayashi, the chief cabinet secretary; who added that the government “puts people’s lives first” and its priority is search and rescue operations.
The cities of Wajima and Suzu and the town of Noto directed about 44,000 residents to evacuate as well as another 16,000 in the Niigata and Yamagata prefectures north of Ishikawa. Two people who had gone missing during the downpour were carried away by river currents, BBC reported citing Japan’s public service broadcaster NHK. Four workers who were repairing roads that were destroyed during a New Year’s Day earthquake also went missing.
The flooded region is still recovering from an earthquake that occurred on January 1, during which a 7.5-magnitude earthquake killed over 235 people after it struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture. The earthquake caused buildings to collapse and triggered a terrible series of aftershocks. Wajima and Suzu were among those areas that were hit the hardest.