Thirteen people have died and 18 others are reportedly missing in floods and landslides caused by heavy rain as a typhoon approached western Japan on Monday, local police has said.
The chaos caused by Typhoon Etau killed 12 people in Hyogo Prefecture and one in Okayama Prefecture.
Police and Self-Defense Forces personnel are searching for those who went missing.
Eleven of the deaths were confirmed amid severe damage and flooding from swollen rivers in the Hyogo town of Sayo, including a 54-year-old man who was found dead in a submerged car early on Monday.
On Sunday, a local observatory in Sayo logged 326.5 millimeters of precipitation, a 24-hour record there.
The Hyogo prefectural government ordered about 10,000 households, including all in Sayo, to evacuate. Officials in Sayo said one person went missing while evacuating from his home to an elementary school in the town late Sunday night.
Some 80 residents of neighboring Shiso city were briefly isolated when three bridges were swept away by flooding rivers but later rescued by SDF troops. One death due to the typhoon was also reported in the Hyogo city of Asago.
In Okayama, mudslides destroyed two houses in Mimasaka near the border with Hyogo and one person died.
{{/usCountry}}In Okayama, mudslides destroyed two houses in Mimasaka near the border with Hyogo and one person died.
{{/usCountry}}