The deaths of three people have been confirmed so far, but this is only a very tentative toll.
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Research resumed early Monday, July 5 in the coastal city of Atami (Japan), the scene of a gigantic mudslide. Uncertainty reigned over the fate of more than a hundred people whose authorities were still without news. The deaths of three people have been confirmed so far, but this is only a very tentative toll. About twenty people are officially missing. However, more than 48 hours after the landslide, local officials were still struggling to determine the fate of a hundred other people who were believed to be in the area at the time of the disaster.
About 130 homes and other buildings were destroyed or damaged when the massive mudslide swept through a residential area of Atami mid-morning on Saturday, leaving a desolate landscape with gutted houses, overturned cars and piles of debris. in a huge quagmire. The city, a mountainside resort about 90 km southwest of Tokyo, received 313 mm of rain on Friday and Saturday in 48 hours, while it averages 242 mm annually for the whole. of the month of July.
Much of Japan is currently in the middle of the rainy season, which often causes flooding and landslides. Scientists say the phenomenon is exacerbated by climate change as a warmer atmosphere holds more water, increasing the risk and intensity of extreme precipitation. The Japanese archipelago has been increasingly confronted in recent years with record floods combined with landslides, often with a heavy human toll.
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