Rescuers were still mobilized in southwest Japan on Monday, ransacking homes ravaged by floods and landslides this weekend, while the human toll is likely to increase. Local authorities fear the deaths of at least 36 people after record rains fell early Saturday morning in the Kumamoto region of Kyushu Island, overflowing rivers and flooding low-lying areas. The deaths of nineteen of them have been confirmed, while 17 others have been found in "cardiopulmonary arrest" , announced local officials, a term used in Japan before the official declaration of death by a doctor. "The rescuers continue their search tirelessly this morning"said a spokesman for the Kumamoto region, while eleven people are still missing.
Although the rains have diminished, roads and bridges have been washed away by the floods, and many in the most isolated communities have been cut off from the world. In one of the most affected areas, residents wrote the words "rice, water, SOS" on the ground, while others waved towels to call for help, according to helicopter images of the Kyodo news agency. In a retirement home, fourteen people are assumed to have been drowned due to the flooding of the ground floor by a flooded river, which prevented residents in wheelchairs from taking refuge in the upper floors. Emergency services and local residents managed to rescue around 50 residents and employees of the retirement home with lifeboats.
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Operations were hampered by fears of further coronavirus contamination. Partitions were installed in evacuation centers to preserve social distancing, and refugees were called upon to wash their hands frequently and wear masks. Some 4,640 households in the Kumamoto region were still without electricity on Monday morning, according to Kyushu Electric Power.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced on Sunday that 40,000 police, firefighters, coast guards and members of the Japanese Self-Defense Force were to participate in the search overnight. Torrential rains are expected to continue to hit the region, where up to 250 mm of precipitation is expected until Tuesday morning. The Japanese Meteorological Agency has called on hundreds of thousands of residents of Kumamoto and the neighboring Kagoshima region to vacate their homes.