Floods in Japan in 2018: Thousands of people without power to save the missing

HIROSHIMA, Japan – Akira Tanimoto's apartment narrowly survived the floods and mudslides in his residential complex over the weekend. But even if he wants to return with his wife and his two pet birds, he can not – because there is no water, power or food available, he said.

"I can not go back if I wanted to," said the 66-year-old retired self-defense technician, holding a bird cage in which the birds chirped. "The electricity is extinct, the water is cut off and there is no information out there. "

Tanimoto thinks that he and his wife, Chieko, are the lucky ones." Some of our neighbors have seen their apartments destroyed, others are still looking for their families, so we are lucky, our parakeets have even survived, "he said.

About a dozen Tanimoto's neighbors were found dead in the apartment complex after the floods that hit the area.Tuesday, rescuers were walking through the mud-covered hills and along the banks of the river in search of dozens of people still missing as much as three inches of rain fell per hour during the weekend Some regions reportedly received three times the usual rainfall for a normal July, triggering landslides and sending rivers to float on their shores, CBS News & Jericka Duncan reported

More than 50 people were missing Tuesday night, many in the most affected Hiroshima region.

Work under the hot sun was hampered by mud and heat, and supplies of relief goods were delayed by damaged roads and transportation systems, particularly in areas isolated by the disaster.

"We check every house to see if there are still people trapped inside," said a local government official from Okayama Prefecture, reported on Monday. ; AFP. "We know it's a race against the clock, we try to do everything we can."

The people who were sheltering at Yano School were receiving water, blankets and mobile phone chargers. But a local volunteer, 25-year-old Yuki Sato, said local convenience stores were clearly short of supplies, so she did not buy anything because she wanted to save them for the evacuees or those who can not. not leave the city.

Water supply and other relief was scarce in some of the other disaster areas.

"No water, no food, nothing happens here," said Ichiro Tanabe, a 73-year-old resident in the nearby port city of Kure, to the Mainichi newspaper. "We will all be dry if we continue to be isolated."

The Sagawa Express Co. and Yamato Transport Co. delivery companies and the Japan Freight Railway Co. freight service reported that some of their shipments to and from the flooded areas were suspended or reduced. Regional supermarket chains such as Every Co. have stated that a retail outlet is closed and that several other outlets have shortened the hours of service due to delivery delays and shortage of supply .

Thousands of homes were still without drinking water and electricity in Hiroshima and other hard-hit areas. Residents lined up to get water under the hot sun as temperatures reached 35 Celsius – 95 Fahrenheit, increasing the risk of heat stroke

In another heavily affected city, Ozu, in Ehime Prefecture, the water supplies were completely cut off and the inhabitants could not clean their mud-stained houses, nor even their clothes. In a large supermarket in the city, employees were selling bottled water and tea, cups of noodles and other preserves that survived the floods, while employees cleaned up the damaged goods and discarded items. in dozens of plastic bags.

Landslides and floods in much of western Japan have left at least 155 people dead, said cabinet secretary-general Yoshihide Suga at a press conference.

Some of the thousands of residents who had been evacuated, some rescued from their roofs, started cleaning up after the rain stopped on Monday.

Suga said the government set up a task force and was spending 2 billion yen – $ 18 million – to speed up deliveries of supplies and other support to evacuation centers and to residents of the area.

Earlier Tuesday, the Self-Defense Force transported seven oil trucks from Hiroshima to Kure, an industrial city whose 226,000 inhabitants were cut off from the rest of the prefecture because of the disaster.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had canceled a planned trip to Europe and the Middle East this week to oversee the emergency response, will visit the disaster-affected areas in Okayama Prefecture, said Suga. The government mobilized 75,000 soldiers and rescuers and nearly 80 helicopters for search and rescue operations, Suga said.

The badessment of the victims was slowed by the magnitude of the affected area. Officials from Ehime Prefecture have asked the government to review its weather warning system, noting that rain warnings have been issued after damage and losses have already occurred. The Meteorological Agency of Japan said that 10 cm of rain fell over much of southwestern Japan