Japan landslide toll feared to more than double
Tokyo: The death toll from catastrophic landslides in western Japan could more than double, police said on Friday, as the number of missing people rose to 52 in addition to the 39 confirmed dead.
More than 4,000 people have now been ordered to evacuate their homes after forecasters warned more rain was on the way to already soaked hillsides, heaping misery on an area that has seen record downpours.
“We initially counted only the people who were certain to be missing, such as those witnessed being carried away in gushing water,” said a spokesman at Hiroshima prefecture police.
“As we continued to investigate and assess the situation, the number rose,” he said.
Firefighters and soldiers were still keeping heavy machinery away from collapsed houses, preferring to remove debris by hand in the hope of finding survivors.
But falling rain was complicating their task in an area where the hillsides are made of decomposed granite — a coarse sand-like material that is used for driveways and paths, but which occurs naturally in this part of Japan.
Geologists say the rock is so weathered that it easily fractures into smaller chunks and becomes fragile when waterlogged.
Forecaster said heavy rain was expected in the afternoon, bringing with it the risk of further landslides.
Meteorologists said the downpour could continue until yesterday evening, with few breaks.
Heavy rain was also affecting parts of Japan further south. In Shime town in Fukuoka prefecture, a 21-year-old police officer was swept away in a flooded gutter yesterday morning while trying to assess road conditions.
His body was found about two hours later in a river, a Fukuoka police spokesman said.
Chikushino city also in Fukuoka issued an evacuation advisory to all its 102,000 residents
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