Japanese rescuers go from house to house while floods hit 141 :: Kenya

Rescuers conducted door-to-door searches Tuesday in hopes of finding survivors after days of deadly floods and landslides that left 141 people dead in one of the homes. worst weather disasters in Japan for decades.

The record showers that started last week stopped and the waters that pulled out of the floods laid bare the destruction that wreaked havoc in the west of the country.

In the city of Kurashiki, flooding engulfed entire districts at one point, forcing some people to wait for their help on the roofs.

Tuesday morning, rescuers went door-to-door, looking for survivors – or victims – of the disaster.

"This is what we call a grid operation, where we check every house to see if there are still people trapped inside," said the reporter. AFP a local government official from Okayama Prefecture.

"We know it's a race against time, we try as hard as we can."

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In Mabi district of Kurashiki, the water left behind a thin yellow vase that transformed the region into a lunar landscape.

Cars pbad through clouds of dust. People walking around wore medical masks or covered their mouths with small towels to protect themselves from particles.

The stores were still closed, and inside a barber shop, red couches, guest chairs and hair dryers were covered with the same mud.

Fumiko Inokuchi, 61, was at home, sorting out the damage caused by the floods that flooded the entire first floor.

She escaped home Saturday, crossing the street to take refuge in a three-story seniors retirement home, from which she watched in horror as the waters rose.

"I saw my house sink under the water and I could not do anything at all, I could not do anything, I felt helpless," she says, retrieving a picture of her children playing baseball.

"I got married here, and we built this house two years later, we raised our three grandchildren to adulthood here, there are so many memories," she says, her eyes filled with tears.

New dangers of heat

The crisis is the most deadly disaster linked to the rain for more than three decades, and it has caused national grief.

On Monday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe canceled a trip to four stops abroad as the death toll increased.

The government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said on Tuesday that at least 141 people had been killed. According to media reports, dozens of others are still missing and the count should increase further.

Nearly 75,000 police, firefighters and soldiers were deployed in the search and rescue operation in parts of central and western Japan, Suga said, warning that the warm weather presented new risks.

Thousands of people remain in shelters after authorities issued evacuation orders for five million residents and local authorities in some areas offered drinking water and bathing services to people without their own supply.

"It will be over 35 degrees Celsius in some areas … Please pay attention to heat stroke if you are doing reconstruction on the outside, and continue to be vigilant about slippage of land, "said Suga.

The government said it was going to draw $ 20 million in reserve funds to provide badistance to those affected by the disaster. Abe was to visit the regions in the coming days.