Shizuoka – Intermittent rain and the risk of a secondary disaster posed challenges for rescue workers racing against time following a large mudslide in a hot spring resort town southwest of Tokyo that killed at least three people, destroyed more than 100 houses and left an uncertain number missing.
The local governments have been struggling to confirm how many people went missing after Saturday’s disaster in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture. They initially reported some 20 were unaccounted for but now say they are trying to reach more than 100 people, some of whom may have moved before the incident.
As of Monday morning, the city has confirmed the safety of 34 people out of 147 who had been unaccounted for. The city is reaching out to community leaders to try to confirm the whereabouts of the remaining 113 people, officials said.
So far, 23 people have been rescued from where they were trapped, the municipal government of Atami said.
Shizuoka Gov. Heita Kawakatsu said Sunday that the prefecture will look into whether the mudslide resulted from housing and other development projects that deforested the area and may have reduced the capacity of the mountain soil to retain water.
Such a project had been underway at the location where the mudslide started, the prefectural government said, adding that about 100,000 cubic meters of soil collapsed into a nearby river.
A witness downstream said the river, usually less than 2 meters wide, was overflowing with dark water and had swollen to several dozen meters wide.
The disaster destroyed homes after mud cascaded down a mountain top around 10:30 a.m. Saturday, traveling a distance of about 2 kilometers.
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