Anamizu, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 22nd Sep, 2024) Heavy rain lashed central Japan on Sunday, with floods and landslides leaving one dead and at least six missing in an area already devastated by a major earthquake earlier this year.
Muddy rivers ran high in Anamizu, a city on the Noto Peninsula, where damage from the January quake that killed at least 318 people is still visible, AFP reporters said.
Authorities on Saturday had urged tens of thousands to evacuate, calling the rains “unprecedented” as the weather agency issued an emergency warning for the area that remained in place on Sunday.
Landslides blocked roads and widespread flooding affected homes — including eight temporary housing complexes in Wajima and Suzu where victims of the magnitude-7.5 earthquake on January 1 are residing.
Military personnel have been sent to the Ishikawa region on the Sea of Japan coast to join rescue workers, top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Saturday.
Some 6,000 households were without power and an unknown number were without running water, the Ishikawa regional government said.
In Anamizu, more rain fell Sunday onto quake-damaged houses and the shattered stone columns of a shrine still lying on the ground months after they were toppled.
A message blared from the city’s loudspeaker disaster prevention system warning residents that the rain could flood the sewer system and dirty water could rise up.
Hideaki Sato, 74, stood on a bridge holding a small blue umbrella, anxiously looking at the swollen water of a small canal.
“My house was flattened completely in the quake,” he told AFP.
“I now live in a small apartment room right there,” he said, pointing at a wooden structure behind him. “If this floods, it would be a real problem.”
