Japanese rescuers go door-to-door to find disaster survivors

Hopes of finding survivors were fading yesterday as rescue workers carried out house-to-house searches after days of deadly floods and landslides that claimed 156 lives in Japan’s worst weather-related disaster for decades.

The record downpours that began last week have stopped and receding floodwaters have laid bare the destruction in the west of the country. In the city of Kurashiki, the flooding engulfed entire districts, forcing some people to their rooftops. Rescue workers were going door-todoor looking for survivors – or victims – of the disaster.

“It’s what we call a grid operation, where we are checking every single house to see if there are people still trapped inside them,” an Okayama prefecture government official said. “We know it’s a race against time – we are trying as hard as we can.”

Hideto Yamanaka was leading a team of about 60 firefighters searching homes.

“I’m afraid elderly people who were living alone may have failed to escape,” said Mr Yamanaka.

As night fell, rescuers continued searching.

“But we still don’t know if we will carry out the operation around the clock,” said Akiko Harada, a spokeswoman at the disaster management section for Hiroshima, where 14 people were still unaccounted for.

In the Mabi district of Kurashiki, the water left behind a fine yellow silt that has transformed the area into a moonscape.

Cars driving through kicked up clouds of dust. People walking around wore medical masks or covered their mouths with small towels to protect themselves.

Shops were still closed, and inside a barber’s shop the red sofas, customer chairs and standing hairdryers were all covered with the same silt.

Fumiko Inokuchi, 61, sorted through the damage caused by floods that submerged the first floor of her home. She escaped the house on Saturday, crossing the street to take shelter in a three-storey care home for the elderly, from where she watched in horror as the waters rose.

“I saw my house sink under water and I couldn’t do anything at all. There was just nothing I could do – I felt helpless,” she said, retrieving a photo of her children playing baseball.

“I got married here, and we built this house two years afterwards. We raised our three small sons to adulthood here. There are so many memories.”

It is Japan’s deadliest weather-related disaster in more than three decades, and has sparked national grief. On Monday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cancelled a four-stop foreign trip as the death toll rose. He will visit Okayama today.

Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said yesterday that at least 156 people had been killed. Reports said dozens more were missing and the toll was expected to rise.

About 75,000 police, firemen and troops have been deployed in the search-and-rescue operation across parts of central and western Japan, Mr Suga said, warning that hot weather posed new risks.

“It will be over 35°C in some areas ... please be careful about heatstroke if you’re doing reconstruction outdoors, and continue to be vigilant about landslides,” Mr Suga said.