According to Takamichi Sugiyama, a Shizuoka prefectural disaster manager, eighty people still hadn’t been found two days after the landslide. Officials were planning to release their names in the hope that some people may have been away at the time of the disaster. Many apartments and houses in Atami can be used as vacation rentals or second homes.
Initial estimates indicated that 147 people couldn’t be reached. However, officials revised the number downwards after they confirmed that some of them had evacuated safely or weren’t at home. Officials confirmed that 25 people, including three injured, were rescued in addition to the four dead.
As authorities prepare for the Tokyo Olympics in just three weeks, the disaster adds to the difficulty. Japan is still battling the coronavirus pandemic and cases are steadily rising in the capital. Experts suggest that a new emergency is needed.
Yoshihide, the Prime Minister, told reporters that rescue workers were doing everything possible to rescue people who are buried under the water and wait for help as soon and as possible.
After days of heavy rain, Saturday’s landslide took place in the middle of the morning. Atami is like many other seaside Japanese towns built into a steep hillside. It ripped through Izusan, which is known for its hot springs and shrine, as well as its shopping streets. It is located approximately 100 km (60 miles) south of Tokyo and has a population of 36 800.
Shizuoka Gov. Heita Kawakatsu, a local inspector who visited the site Monday where the mudslide is believed to have begun, stated that rain had soaked into the mountainside, weakening it under a huge pile of soil from a construction site. The slope then fell.
The prefecture is currently investigating. According to media reports, a planned housing project in the area was abandoned when its operator ran into financial difficulties.
Witnesses described hearing a huge roar as a stream became a torrent. Bystanders could be heard gasping in horror from cellphone videos that were taken as the event occurred.
Naoto Date was an actor visiting Izusan when he was woken by sirens. His neighborhood is now covered in muddy water, with rescuers navigating through the sludge to reach their knees. A few blocks away from his home are houses that have been completely washed away with their foundations only. From the mud, traffic signs are mangled. He saw cars floating on the seafront with debris left over from homes that had been destroyed.
“I grew-up here, and my classmates as well as friends live here. “It’s so sad to see my neighborhood, where I used to play and with my friends, is now destroyed,” Date stated to The Associated Press via videocall from Atami.
Date’s mother, who was living next door, moved into a hotel with other evacuees. The actor stated that he was not staying at evacuation centers as he is worried about the coronavirus.
Although 660,000 areas in Japan have been identified as being prone to mudslides, the public is not aware of these designations and are not widely known. The end of Japan’s rainy seasons in July is often marked by deadly flooding and mudslides. Experts believe that the climate is changing and the rains are becoming more severe.
Authorities were reminding people living near hillsides and areas at high risk of falling trees to be cautious, as heavy downpours are expected in other parts. NHK, a public broadcaster, aired Monday’s program about warning signs and risk factors that could lead to landslides.
Nearly 80 people were killed in flooding and mudslides that occurred in Kumamoto, four other prefectures of the Kyushu region in south Japan last year. Twenty people were killed when hillsides collapsed in Hiroshima’s crowded residential areas. 40 people were killed by flooding and mudslides in the Kyushu region in 2017.
Miyoko Okamoto is an elderly care worker who said that the mudslide was very close to her home but missed it. Her son and she ran out of her house while her husband, a leader in the community association, helped neighbors get to safer ground.
Okamoto stated that she hasn’t been home since fleeing, as she helps residents at the care home. She said, “We were fortunate to survive, and that’s what’s most important.”
Her neighbor, however, is still searching for his wife. She said that they are “good friends of ours” and “that hurts my heart.”
