Floods Swamp Hundreds of Homes in Central Japan
Date: 01-Sep-08
Country: JAPAN
"The thunder was so strong and the rain was very heavy, too. Then I smelled the mud. That's when I knew this is really quite serious," a man who fled his home in Tokyo when a landslide hit the area told NHK television.
Some people fled their home in a boat as floodwater reached close to their waist, television pictures showed, and cars sank in muddy water.
Police said a woman in her 70s was found dead in her flooded home in the city of Okazaki, 230 km (143 miles) west of Tokyo.
A record amount of rain was dumped on the city, peaking at 146 mm (5.7 inches) falling in just one hour.
A train in the capital was hit by a landslide and derailed, but no one was injured, a city official said.
NHK said authorities issued evacuation orders to more than half a million households in the Aichi region, which includes Okazaki and the industrial city of Nagoya.
Japan has suffered repeated flooding in recent months and the government weather agency warned of more rain in eastern and northern Japan on Friday and Saturday.
(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Rodney Joyce)
