This photograph exhibits short-term housing – constructed for individuals who misplaced their houses throughout the January 1, 2024 earthquake – surrounded by floodwaters after heavy rains pounded the realm, within the metropolis of Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, on September 22, 2024. Agence France-Presse
ANAMIZU, Japan — Heavy rain lashed central Japan on Sunday, with floods and landslides leaving one lifeless and at the least six lacking in an space already devastated by a serious earthquake earlier this yr.
Muddy rivers ran excessive in Anamizu, a metropolis on the Noto Peninsula, the place injury from the January quake that killed at the least 318 folks continues to be seen, AFP reporters mentioned.
Authorities on Saturday had urged tens of hundreds to evacuate, calling the rains “unprecedented” because the climate company issued an emergency warning for the realm that remained in place on Sunday.
READ: Magnitude 5.9 earthquake hits central Japan, no tsunami warning
Landslides blocked roads and widespread flooding affected houses — together with eight short-term housing complexes in Wajima and Suzu the place victims of the magnitude-7.5 earthquake on January 1 are residing.
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Army personnel have been despatched to the Ishikawa area on the Sea of Japan coast to affix rescue staff, prime authorities spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi informed reporters on Saturday.
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Some 6,000 households had been with out energy and an unknown quantity had been with out working water, the Ishikawa regional authorities mentioned.
READ: ‘Very robust’ hurricane buffets Japan’s Pacific coast
In Anamizu, extra rain fell Sunday onto quake-damaged homes and the shattered stone columns of a shrine nonetheless mendacity on the bottom months after they had been toppled.
A message blared from town’s loudspeaker catastrophe prevention system warning residents that the rain might flood the sewer system and soiled water might stand up.
Hideaki Sato, 74, stood on a bridge holding a small blue umbrella, anxiously trying on the swollen water of a small canal.
“My home was flattened utterly within the quake,” he informed AFP.
“I now reside in a small condominium room proper there,” he mentioned, pointing at a picket construction behind him. “If this floods, it will be an actual downside.”
‘Safe your security’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has instructed the federal government “to do its finest in catastrophe administration, with saving folks’s lives as the primary precedence”, in keeping with Hayashi.
Scientists say human-driven local weather change is intensifying the danger posed by heavy rains as a result of a hotter ambiance holds extra water.
The areas below the emergency warning noticed “heavy rain of unprecedented ranges”, JMA forecaster Satoshi Sugimoto informed reporters Saturday, including “it’s a state of affairs during which you must safe your security instantly”.
Greater than 120 millimeters (4.7 inches) of rainfall per hour had been recorded within the metropolis of Wajima on Saturday morning — the heaviest rain since comparable information grew to become out there in 1929.
Footage on public broadcaster NHK confirmed a complete avenue submerged in Wajima, one of many areas hardest hit by the massive New Yr’s Day quake, which toppled buildings, ripped up roads and sparked a serious fireplace.
As of Sunday morning, one individual had been killed, three had been lacking and two had been critically injured in Ishikawa, the hearth and catastrophe administration company mentioned.
At the very least a dozen rivers burst their banks and two of the lacking had been reportedly carried away by robust currents.
One other three folks had been lacking who had been working for the land ministry to revive a street in Wajima, native ministry official Yoshiyuki Tokuhashi informed AFP.
One employee who had been reported lacking “walked to the tunnel” close to the landslide the place 26 others had been taking shelter, Tokuhashi mentioned, including that each one 27 staff had now been evacuated to security.
“Rescue work was deliberate to start out at 5 am this morning, then it was suspended resulting from heavy rain, however is scheduled to renew at round 11 am,” he mentioned.
Municipalities in Ishikawa informed 75,000 residents within the area — together with within the cities of Wajima and Suzu, in addition to Noto city — to evacuate, officers mentioned.
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One other 16,800 residents in Niigata and Yamagata prefectures north of Ishikawa had been additionally informed to evacuate, the hearth and catastrophe administration company mentioned.
