At least three people have died due to record rains that occurred in northeastern Japan, which have caused significant flooding that has affected more than 1,000 homes and whose damage assessment continues, authorities reported Sunday.
The center and northeast of the Japanese archipelago have been affected since Friday by linear bands of precipitation initially carried by the now dissolved tropical storm Yun-yeung, but which continued on successive days in the eastern region.
In the cities of Iwaki and Minamisoma, located in the prefecture of Fukushima, more than 1,000 homes at street level suffered flooding, according to the balance sheet published Sunday by public broadcaster NHK.
The three deaths occurred in the prefectures of Chiba and Ibaraki, east and northeast of Tokyo, respectively, where the floods have affected at least a hundred homes, a figure that is expected to continue increasing as the cleaning work and damage assessment continues.
In Iwaki and several towns in Chiba, record rainfall was recorded these days, with volumes corresponding in a few hours to those of an entire month of September in a conventional year.
The victims counted so far are a 20-year-old man from the city of Kitaibaraki who is believed to have been swept away by a swollen river, a newspaper delivery person from Hitachiota found in the Momiya River and a 49-year-old police engineer from Otaki who died after falling from a roof.
The rains have also caused flooding in Ibaraki and Chiba in at least 200 underground facilities.
In the town of Mobara, where record rains have also occurred, 39 people remained evacuated in shelters early today due to flooding.
Rainfall has caused landslides due to the softening of the ground in more than 200 locations.
The storm has caused damage to local roads and the railway operator JR East announced the suspension of operations on some lines in Chiba Prefecture for Sunday due to track cleaning work. It is possible that the service will also be affected in the coming days due to these tasks.
Source : La Prensa Latina
