Flooding and mudslides that reached a care facility in the town of Iwaizumi in northern Japan caused the deaths of nine of the facility’s elderly residents, Japanese officials announced on Wednesday.
Advertisement
The building is home to elderly people suffering from dementia, NHK reported.
NHK also reported that authorities have found two more bodies in another town in Iwate prefecture.
Television pictures showed flooded rivers with cars and homes partly submerged, while rescuers picked up stranded people by helicopter.
“We’re making a government-wide effort to assess the extent of damage”, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
Rivers in parts of Iwate and the northern island of Hokkaido flooded, inundating residential areas and blocking roads.
The public broadcaster, NHK, reported that the police found those bodies when they were trying to rescue people who were trapped due to flooding by Typhoon Lionrock.
Authorities have issued warnings for torrential rain, high waves, strong winds and flooding for the northeastern region, which remains vulnerable after destruction brought about by a March 2011 tsunami generated by a massive magnitude 9.0 offshore natural disaster.
However, it is expected to Lionrock to be lower to a tropical storm by the time it made landfall.
A typhoon which is now over southern Japan today is moving toward the northeast accompanied by violent rains, and may pass through the region devastated by the natural disaster followed by a tsunami on March 11, according to the weather service.
The town issued an evacuation preparation information on Tuesday morning. Wind speeds are expected to decrease as the typhoon – a category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale – approaches land.
More than 1,000 other people were forced from their homes by the flooding brought by Typhoon Lionrock.
Lionrock is the third such storm to hit Japan since August 21, when typhoon Kompasu left one person dead on the northern island of Hokkaido.
Much of the coastal areas smashed by the tsunami five years ago are still struggling to recover.
More than 100 flights were cancelled and evacuation warnings were issued for thousands of people as a powerful typhoon approached Japan’s northeast on Tuesday, a region devastated by a massive quake and tsunami five years ago. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
Advertisement
Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.
