TOKYO, Jul 13 (NNN-NHK) – Torrential rain pounded regions facing the Sea of Japan late yesterday, causing mudslides and leaving a city assembly member in Toyama Prefecture, missing, local media reported.
Police are searching for Nobuhiko Akaike, a member of the Nanto assembly, today, fearing he may have been caught in a mudslide, when he was moving around a neighbourhood in the city of Nanto, Kyodo News said.
The prefectures of Ishikawa and Toyama on the Sea of Japan coast, saw bands of heavy rain clouds develop last night, due to the seasonal rain front, situated over the Japanese archipelago, said the report.
Ishikawa Prefecture logged a record six-hour rainfall total of 199 millimetres during the night in Kahoku, while Toyama Prefecture registered a downpour of 170.5 millimetres in Kamiichi, another record high, it added.
A Nanto resident reported a mudslide at around 2:10 a.m. local time today, and a house was found destroyed nearby. Mudslides also cut off roads in neighbouring Oyabe, leaving 41 households and their 101 total residents isolated, Kyodo News said, citing local police.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has forecast heavy downpours with thunder in western Japan, particularly regions facing the Sea of Japan, today and in eastern Japan through tomorrow.– NNN-NHK
