Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who visited one of the worst-affected regions yesterday, plans to travel to another area hit by deadly flooding and landslides.
This picture shows a collapsed road due to heavy rain in Higashihiroshima, Hiroshima prefecture on July 7, 2018. Three people were found dead near rain-swollen rivers in Japan on July 6, officials said, as record downpours prompted authorities to order more than 210,000 people to evacuate their homes, with some areas hit by more than a metre of rainfall. Photo | AFP
The toll in record rains that have devastated parts of Japan today rose to 199, with dozens still missing, a top government spokesman said.
Yoshihide Suga said search operations were continuing after the worst weather-related disaster in Japan in over three decades.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who visited one of the worst-affected regions yesterday, plans to travel to another area hit by deadly flooding and landslides after the rains, Suga said.
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Abe cancelled a four-stop foreign trip due this week as the death toll in the disaster rose.
Hopes for finding survivors have faded a week after the rains began, even though the downpours have now stopped and flood waters have receded.
At least 10,000 people who evacuated their homes or were rescued are now living in shelters, and the government has pledged to set aside emergency funding to help people return home.
“We will do everything we can so that people will not have to continue living in uncomfortable situations in shelters,” Abe said at a morning meeting.
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