An asphalt road that was ripped apart by flooding from the Toguchi Rriver is pictured in Tatsugo, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Oct. 21. (Mainichi)
(Mainichi Japan) October 22, 2010
AMAMI, Kagoshima -- Around 1,600 people remain cut off after torrential rain struck the island of Amami Oshima in southern Kagoshima Prefecture.
A Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) task force has moved in to help with rescue and reconstruction. The GSDF force of around 90 officers arrived via a ferry at Naze port in the city of Amami at around 5:15 a.m. on Oct. 22.
Around 40 vehicles including high-performance vehicles capable of navigating damaged roads and vehicles for making electrical repairs, as well as medical supplies and other needed items were unloaded from the ferry. The task force then headed out toward the hardest-hit district in the city of Sumiyo, whose 1,608 residents have been isolated after phone lines stopped working and roads became impassable.
The GSDF force that landed on Oct. 22 joined a task force already on the island, after which they split into land-vehicle and helicopter-based groups and began rescue work. Centering their activities around the most heavily damaged areas, the GSDF forces are working to deliver supplies, transport GSDF personnel, and check on the welfare of residents.
GSDF vehicles disembark at the port of Amami, Kagoshima Prefecture early on the morning of Oct. 22. (Mainichi)
Cut telephone lines have so far prevented authorities from confirming the welfare of two people in Sumiyo's southern Aoku district. There have been no reports of disaster in the area, but GSDF officers will still check the site.
The torrential rain, meanwhile, are confirmed to have killed at least three. Toshiko Miyanohara, an 88-year-old woman in the town of Tatsugo who had been missing after her house was destroyed in a mudslide, was discovered dead on Oct. 21. Hisa Ike, 90, and Sue Naga, 87, two residents at a nursing home in the Sumiyo district of Amami, have also been confirmed dead.
Across the island, evacuation instructions or recommendations had been given to 1,294 households comprising 2,689 residents as of 9 p.m. on Oct. 21.
Confirmed injuries and structural damage as of 9 p.m. on Oct. 21 included: two people with light injuries, two buildings destroyed, 155 buildings with above-floor-level flooding, and 166 buildings with below-floor-level flooding. Additionally, 29 areas of road have become completely impassable.
On the night of Oct. 20, 136 students at Amami's six elementary and junior high-level schools were unable to be evacuated, but on Oct. 21 all the students' safety was accounted for by the Kagoshima prefectural board of education. As of 6 p.m. on Oct. 21, around 20 students were still waiting for evacuation.
According to the Kagoshima Local Meteorological Observatory, from the beginning of the downpour at 9 p.m. on Oct. 18 until 7 p.m. on Oct. 21, 750 millimeters of rain had been recorded in the Naze district of Amami, and 380 millimeters of rain had been recorded in the Koniya district in the town of Setouchi. The observatory says the rainfall recorded in the Naze district over this period is three times the entire October rainfall in an average year.
The observatory has called for continued vigilance for mudslides and other danger, as the autumn front that caused the rain is expected to remain in place until sometime on Oct. 22, and conditions will continue to promote precipitation until Oct. 24.
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