TOKYO (AP) – Rescue workers in Japan searched on Monday for three people who went missing in or near rivers swollen by heavy rains last week that left one person dead and dozens injured.
A man in his 60s who was pulled from a flooded car Friday in the central city of Toyohashi was pronounced dead over the weekend.
In Wakayama prefecture, a woman was seen being swept into a swollen river while driving and an older man who went to check on a friend in a riverside neighbourhood is also believed to have been swept away. Rescuers also are searching for a person who lived beside a swollen river and was missing in the central prefecture of Shizuoka.
On Monday, residents were cleaning up in flood-hit parts of Iwata city in Shizuoka, where a river bank was breached and dozens of homes were flooded. The residents, helped by volunteers, shoveled out mud that gushed into their houses, washed the floors and brought out mud-smeared furniture.
Heavy rain also caused widespread damage in the Tokyo region. In Toride city in Ibaraki prefecture northeast of Tokyo, more than 600 homes were flooded, and 85 residents were safely evacuated by boats, local media reported.
The heavy rains that fell on Japan’s main islands late last week were intensified by Tropical Storm Mawar, which was a super typhoon when it hit Guam in May.
Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said on Monday in addition to the one dead and three missing, more than 40 people were injured in the rain, flooding and strong winds. Ten of those injured were on the southern island of Okinawa earlier in the storm.
