More than 50 people were unaccounted for as of Tuesday evening, many in the hardest-hit Hiroshima area
HIROSHIMA, Japan — Akira Tanimoto’s apartment narrowly survived the floods and mudslide at his residential complex over the weekend. But even if he wants to go back with his wife and two pet birds, he can’t — because there is no water, power or food available, he says.
“I can’t go back if I wanted to,” the 66-year-old retired Self-Defense serviceman said, holding a bird cage in which the birds chirped. “Electricity is out, water is cut off and there is no information there.”
Tanimoto thinks he and his wife, Chieko, are the lucky ones. “Some of our neighbors had their apartments destroyed, others are still looking for their families. So we are lucky. Our parakeets even survived,” he said.
About a dozen of Tanimoto’s neighbors were found dead at the apartment complex after floods hit the area. In total in southwestern Japan, the death toll has exceeded 150.
On Tuesday, rescuers were combing through mud-covered hillsides and along riverbanks searching for dozens of people still missing as much as three inches of rain fell per hour over the weekend. Some regions reportedly received three times the usual precipitation for a normal July, setting off landslides and sending rivers surging over their banks, CBS News’ Jericka Duncan reported.
More than 50 people were unaccounted for as of Tuesday evening, many in the hardest-hit Hiroshima area.
Work under the scorching sun was hampered by mud and heat, and shipments of relief goods were delayed by damaged roads and transportation systems, especially in areas isolated by the disaster.
Rescuers were searching door to door for people.
“We are checking every single house to see if there are people still trapped inside them,” said an official with the local Okayama prefecture government, the AFP reported. “We know it’s a race against time, we are trying as hard as we can.
