Two dead and three missing in floods in Tohoku

The death of a police officer was confirmed and a woman was recently reported missing in the heavy rains that hit neighboring northeastern Yamagata and Akita prefectures.

As of Sunday, two people had died in the disaster and three were missing.

On Thursday night, two male police officers in their 20s who were driving to a location in the city of Shinjo, Yamagata Prefecture, where a local resident had made an emergency call were swept away, prefectural police said. One of the officers, 26-year-old Ryota Tamaya, was found in cardiac arrest on Friday afternoon and was pronounced dead on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the city of Sakata in Yamagata announced on Saturday that an 86-year-old woman was missing.

Due to a seasonal rain front, heavy rain is expected to continue in Yamagata and Akita until around Tuesday. The weather agency is urging the population to be careful of rising rivers and overflowing their banks, landslides and flooding in low-lying areas.

According to the two prefectures, the number of flooded homes in Yamagata and Akita is at least 109 and 164 respectively. In Akita, damage to agriculture, forestry and fisheries, including flooded rice and vegetable fields, amounts to 111 million yen (US$720,000).

In the city of Mamurogawa in Yamagata, the rainfall amounts over the past 72 hours were 444.0 millimeters at 6:20 a.m. on Saturday, 400.5 milliliters in Sakata at 5:40 a.m. and 283.0 milliliters in the city of Kitaakita in Akita at 9:00 a.m.