ALBAWABA - Floods and landslides killed one person and left at least six missing in central Japan on Sunday, with recovery teams working on a remote peninsula already ravaged by a huge earthquake earlier this year.
The "unprecedented" torrential rains that had battered the area since Saturday began to decrease, leaving muddy pictures of ruin as the National Meteorological Office warned residents to be cautious of loose ground and other hazards.
In Wajima, splintered branches and a massive uprooted tree piled up at a bridge across a river whose roaring brown waters nearly reached ground level.
People were spotted walking into the mud to try to pull out half-buried cars, as flood waters swamped emergency accommodation created for those who had lost their houses in the New Year's Day earthquake, which killed at least 318.
Akemi Yamashita, a 54-year-old resident, talked to AFP saying she was traveling on Saturday when "within only 30 minutes or so, water gushed into the street and quickly rose to half the height of my car".
Eight temporary housing complexes were damaged in Wajima and Suzu, two towns on the Noto Peninsula devastated by the magnitude-7.5 quake, which toppled buildings, produced tidal waves, and started a massive fire.
Hundreds of millimeters of rain fell in Wajima in the 72 hours leading up to Sunday morning, the greatest continuous rain since comparable statistics became available in 1976.
Landslides closed highways, hindering rescue attempts, and tens of thousands of residents in the surrounding area were encouraged to flee.
