Record-breaking rains leave 11 dead in Japan’s quake-stricken Ishikawa Prefecture
Eleven people have been confirmed dead following unprecedented rainfall that hit Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture on Friday and Saturday, September 21 and 22, 2024, resulting in severe flooding and widespread damage across the region.
Image credit: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Noto Reconstruction Office
Eleven people have been confirmed dead after record-breaking torrential rain struck Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture on Friday and Saturday, September 21 and 22, leading to severe flooding in the region.
The death toll rose to eleven on Wednesday, September 25, after three new bodies were discovered. A woman was found dead in Wajima on Wednesday morning, and two other people were found in the coastal regions of Wajima City in the afternoon.
Currently, nine people have been confirmed dead in Wajima and two in Suzu. As of 15:00 local time (LT) on Wednesday, 157 people were isolated in 16 locations across seven districts of the Ishikawa Prefecture. Two people remain missing, and 12 have been reported injured.
Around 514 people are taking shelter in evacuation centers at 31 locations in Wajima, Suzu, and the town of Noto.
The floods occurred after record-breaking rain struck Ishikawa last week. Wajima recorded over 120 mm (4.72 inches) of rain per hour on Saturday morning, September 22. This was the heaviest rain since records there began, prompting a Level 5 emergency for the region.
Wajima recorded 318.5 mm (12.5 inches) of rain between Friday evening and Saturday noon (LT), while Suzu saw 226 mm (8.9 inches), prompting evacuation orders for roughly 46 000 citizens in the affected region. Around 18 000 people in Wajima, 12 000 in Suzu, and 16 000 in the Niigata and Yamagata prefectures have been told to evacuate and seek shelter.
“The amount of rain in these cities and towns is unprecedented,” said Yoshimasa Hayashi, Chief Cabinet Secretary. “Multiple rivers have overflowed their banks, and many buildings have been flooded,” he added.
Around 12 rivers were reported to have breached their banks after the unprecedented rains that devastated the prefecture. Several landslides were reported and multiple roads were blocked due to the floods.
Search and rescue missions are ongoing in the affected regions along with damage control operations.
This region is still recovering from a devastating M7.6 earthquake on January 1, which claimed over 280 lives and damaged at least 80 000 buildings.
References:
1 Death toll from torrential rain in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture rises to 11 – NHK – September 26, 2024
2 Death Toll from Noto Peninsula Rain Rises to 11 – Nippon– September 25, 2024
Rishav Kothari is Editor-in-Chief of The Watchers, where he runs the newsroom and covers earthquakes, volcanoes, severe weather and space weather.
Published in the last 24 hours
- In September 1859, a solar storm lit up the night sky so brightly that gold miners in the Rocky Mountains woke up after midnight and started cooking breakfast, convinced the aurora glowing over their camp was the sunrise Epicenter
- A patch of warm Pacific water that could become the strongest El Niño in more than 70 years sits thousands of miles from any American town, yet it is already the main reason NOAA expects a wetter winter across the South and a milder one across the North
- A 19-year-old Nebraska teacher reportedly tied her pupils together with twine and led them to safety through a blizzard in January 1888 Epicenter
- NASA built the Opportunity rover to last 90 days on Mars, and Martian winds helped keep it alive for nearly 15 years by blowing dust off its solar panels, until a planet-wide dust storm in 2018 blocked sunlight and silenced the rover Epicenter
