Juntendo Hospital in the town of Omachi, Saga Prefecture, is seen surrounded by flood waters after record-setting rainfall, on Aug. 15, 2021. (Mainichi)

       FUKUOKA -- The rain pounding Japan for over a week continues to take its toll, with another two deaths related to the deluge confirmed over the past two days, bringing the total to at least eight as of Aug. 18.

       The heavy rains soaking the Japanese archipelago began on Aug. 11. In addition to the newly confirmed fatalities, three people are missing. With more unstable weather in the forecast through Aug. 20, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) is warning of high river levels, and potential flooding and landslides.

       On the evening of Aug. 17, a woman in her 80s in southwest Japan's Hioki, Kagoshima Prefecture, was discovered collapsed in a drainage gutter near her home and confirmed dead. The water level appears to have been higher than usual due to the volume of rain.

       Firefighters take people to safety on a rubber raft in a flooded area of Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, on Aug. 14, 2021. (Mainichi/Shiro Homan)

       Meanwhile, the Nagasaki Prefectural Government announced on Aug. 18 that a body found the day before in the ruins of a home swept away by a mudslide was identified as that of 32-year-old Yuko Mori, who worked for the local hot spring tourism association in the prefectural city of Unzen. She was one of two occupants of the home declared missing after it was hit by the mudslide. A third occupant had already been confirmed dead.

       So far, three torrential rain-linked deaths have been reported in central Japan's Nagano Prefecture, four in Nagasaki Prefecture, and one in Kagoshima Prefecture. One person remains missing in each of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Kumamoto prefectures, all in Japan's west and southwest.

       Firefighters and Self-Defense Force personnel search the site of a landslide in Unzen, Nagasaki Prefecture, in this Aug. 18, 2021 photo provided by the Unzen Municipal Government.

       According to the JMA, between Aug. 11 and 6 p.m. on Aug. 18, total rainfall exceeding 1,000 millimeters fell on 10 locations in six prefectures, mostly in the southwestern Kyushu region. In the same week, 67 spots across 15 prefectures were soaked with record-high rainfall for a 72-hour period. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has stated that, as of the morning on Aug. 18, 61 rivers across Japan were overflowing, and 118 cases of landslide damage had been confirmed.

       Municipalities including the cities of Takeo, Saga Prefecture, and Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture -- both on the island of Kyushu -- have seen widespread flooding in residential and other areas from "inland overflows," or tributaries and irrigation canals overflowing due to high river levels. According to Mainichi Shimbun calculations, as of 5 p.m. on Aug. 18, 5,636 homes mostly in Saga and Fukuoka prefectures had been damaged.

       The Cabinet Office has said that so far 21 municipalities across Nagano, Shimane, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Saga and Nagasaki prefectures have been declared eligible for support under the Disaster Relief Act.

       (Japanese original by Yu Yoshizumi and Azusa Yamazaki, Kyushu News Department)

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