At least two people were feared dead and 13 others went missing in western Japan Saturday as record heavy rain triggered massive floods and landslides , forcing authorities to issue evacuation orders for more than 76 , 000 residents .
The nation ’ s weather agency downgraded rain warnings by one notch from the highest emergency level in Kumamoto and Kagoshima on Kyushu island , but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged local people to be “ on maximum alert ” .
Abe ordered 10 , 000 troops on standby for immediate deployment to join rescue and recovery operations , pledging ythe central government would “ do its best to take emergency measures , prioritising people ’ s lives” .
Two people were found “ in cardio -respiratory arrest” and another was missing in landslides in Kumamoto , said Naosaka Miyahara , a disaster management official for the prefecture , using a term often used in Japan before a doctor certifies death .
“ At one point in the morning , 13 people were unaccounted for but the figures are changing as we are still struggling to sort out the situation , ” Miyahara told AFP.
Public broadcaster NHK said about 100 people had been stranded as roads were cut off by floods and landslides .
Television footage showed vehicles swamped at car parks near a flooding river , while several bridges were washed away .
“ I can ’ t evacuate as a road turned into a river . It ’ s so scary , ” a female resident told NHK .
Aerial footage showed a resident being lifted with a rope from a roof to a military helicopter as an entire town was awash with muddy water.
A massive landslide destroyed several houses with rescuers searching for missing people through half - buried windows .
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