Japan’s flood victims begin clean-up

JAPAN: Flood victims in Japan began a full-scale clean-up operation Monday after record rainfall forced hundreds of thousands to flee and left at least 32 dead or missing.

Television footage showed residents together with volunteers and local government officials shovelling mud and moving damaged furniture from their homes, while mechanical diggers removed fallen trees and debris from the roads.

Four days of torrential rainfall wrought devastation in the southwestern Japanese island of Kyushu, with rivers bursting their banks, and muddy water destroying or inundating houses.

Electricity remained cut off to some 2,600 houses in northern Kyushu, according to Kyushu Electric Power Co., while local governments sent emergency response teams to villagers isolated by landslides.

Troops were called in Sunday to airlift supplies to those cut off, while local authorities dispatched rescue helicopters to ferry the elderly to hospital.

The death toll from landslides and floods has risen to 26, with rescuers on the island of Kyushu still searching six missing people. Television footage showed rescue divers searching a river, while troops looking for bodies scoured flooded rice fields.

“We are stepping up efforts to remove rubble as roads remain covered with mud at many points,” Masatatsu Minoda, an official from Kyushu's Kumamoto prefecture, told AFP by phone.

“Workers are engaged in clean-up efforts while taking care against possible further landslides. We may have to stop working if it rains heavily again.” The meteorological agency said rains had eased -- but warned further downpours in northern Kyushu on Monday could trigger more landslides.

AFP