Nine people were killed when floods hit an old people’s home in Japan, police said on Wednesday, taking the death toll from a typhoon battering northern parts of the country to at least 11.
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As many as 80 people had also been airlifted to safety from a facility near to the care home, local reports said, although they were not believed to be in a serious condition.
The town of Iwaizumi in Iwate has hit by 203.5 millimeters of rainfall in a day, a figure above the monthly average for August.
Authorities in the northern Tohoku area of Honsho – Japan’s largest island – had issued evacuation advisories to around 410,000 people amid fears of landslides and high waves.
Aerial photos from Kyodo News service also showed serious flooding south of Hokkaido in Iwate prefecture.
In Iwate Prefecture, nine bodies were found at the inundated Ranran group home for the elderly in Iwaizumi.
The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry has so far confirmed that a total of 17 rivers of eight river systems in Hokkaido, Iwate and Amori prefectures burst their embankments or otherwise flooded.
However no casualties have been noted, chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.
Hayashijiri said the victims’ identities and other details, including whereabouts of their caretakers, were not known.
In Minamifurano Town, precipitation of more than 500mm was recorded, NHK said.
Flood alarms were sounded on Wednesday in Tumen City for residents of low-lying areas to leave their homes.
The incident happened as the house was flooded by heavy rains caused by Typhoon Lionrock.
The typhoon made landfall in the northern region, 500 kilometers northeast of Tokyo in the city Ofunato, since 1951, when the Japan Meteorological Agency started keeping records. The disaster management agency said at least one person went missing in a vehicle that went down with a bridge torn away by the flood.
Iwaizumi is the same town which was devastated by the 2011 tsunami and natural disaster that damaged the Fukushima nuclear reactor and left more than 18,000 people dead.
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