Tens of thousands told to leave their homes as heavy rain buckets down on Japan

Tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes as heavy rain fell on parts of Japan for a second day. Residents were left stranded and waving for help from their roofs as rescue workers used helicopters to pluck them to safety. A 63-year old woman was missing after a landslide hit her home, while a man in his 70s was feared trapped in his home when floods swept it away in Joso, about 56 km (35 miles) north of Tokyo. A further 800,000 people across eastern Japan have been advised to evacuate after officials issued pre-dawn warnings of unusually harsh rainfall to 5 million people.

This is a scale of downpour that we have not experienced before. Grave danger could be imminent.

Forecaster Takuya Deshimaru told an emergency press conference.

The Kinugawa River burst through a flood barrier, sending a tsunami-like wave into Joso, about 30 miles northeast of Japan’s capital Tokyo, coming on the heels of Tropical Storm Etau. National broadcaster NHK showed footage of a military helicopter descending four times in a 20-minute period to rescue four people, one at a time, as the floodwaters surrounded their home. Tokyo was also hit by heavy rain but the worst affected parts of the country were in the north, in Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures. A woman was reported missing after a landslide hit and the country’s fire service said 15 people had been hurt, including two elderly women seriously injured after being knocked over by strong winds.

World Japan floods