One person has died and seven people are missing, authorities said, after “unprecedented” storms caused floods and landslides in the southern quake-hit area of Ishikawa in northern Japan.
Japan Meteorological Agency ( JMA ) on Saturday issued its highest “life-threatening” alert level for the Ishikawa region, following torrential rains which are expected to last until midday on Sunday.
After at least a dozen streams in the area burst their banks, more than 40, 000 people across four places have been given the order to leave.
According to Japan’s public services journalist NHK, two of the missing were swept away by powerful river currents.
Another four personnel who were repairing roads on New Year’s Day are also unaccounted for, however.
More than 120mm ( 4.7in ) of rain was recorded in Wajima on Saturday morning, NHK reported, the heaviest downpour in the region since records began.
Sugimoto Satoshi, a JMA forecaster, stated to reporters:” This level of storms has never been experienced in this region earlier. Residents may secure their health quickly. The threat to their life is inevitable”.
Broadcast footage captured an entire city in Wajima being submerged under water.
Koji Yamamoto, a government official, told AFP that 60 people were attempting to repair a road in the city of Wajima that had been damaged by the earthquake, but that they were also hit by a disaster on Saturday night.
” I asked]contractors ] to check the safety of workers… but we are still unable to contact four people”, Mr Yamamoto said.
Rescue personnel who had tried to gain access to the site, he said, were “blocked by mudslides”.
A deeper two people have been seriously injured, according to state officials.
Some 6, 000 families have been left without power, with an undisclosed number of households without running water, AFP organization reported.
Around 44, 000 people have been ordered to leave the cities of Wajima and Suzu and seek refuge in Honshu Island’s Ishikawa province.
However, another 16, 000 people in the Niigata and Yamagata counties north of Ishikawa were likewise told to leave, the AFP media company said.
Wajima and Suzu, in northern Japan’s Noto coast, were among the areas hardest hit by a large quake at the start of the year that killed at least 236 people.
The region is still recovering after the deadly magnitude 7.5 earthquake on New Year’s Day.
The strong collapse had toppled houses, ripped up streets and sparked a big fire.
In recent years, Japan has experienced exceptional precipitation in some areas of the nation, with floods and landslides occasionally resulting in fatalities.