Japan Floods: Death toll in rain disaster rises to 199, says Government

— By Agencies | Jul 12, 2018 09:00 am

TOPSHOT - A woman cleans her belongings outside her damaged house in a flood hit area in Mabi, Okayama prefecture on July 10, 2018. Rescue workers carried out house-to-house searches on July 10 in the increasingly unlikely hope of finding survivors after days of deadly floods and landslides that have claimed 141 lives in one of Japan's worst weather-related disasters for decades. / AFP PHOTO / Martin BUREAU

Tokyo: The toll in record rains that have devastated parts of Japan today rose to 199, with dozens still missing, a top government spokesman said. Yoshihide Suga said search operations were continuing after the worst weather-related disaster in Japan in over three decades.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who visited one of the worst-affected regions yesterday, plans to travel yesterday to another area hit by deadly flooding and landslides after the rains, Suga said. Abe cancelled a four-stop foreign trip due this week as the death toll in the disaster rose. Hopes for finding survivors have faded a week after the rains began, even though the downpours have now stopped and flood waters have receded.

At least 10,000 people who evacuated their homes or were rescued are now living in shelters, and the government has pledged to set aside emergency funding to help people return home. “We will do everything we can so that people will not have to continue living in uncomfortable situations in shelters,” Abe said at a morning meeting.