TOKYO: Record rainfall devastated parts of Japan on Saturday and killed at least 30 people, as homes disappeared beneath floodwaters and landslides, while authorities ordered over 1.9 million evacuations.

The unprecedented downpours have wreaked havoc primarily in the west of the country with flash-floods and landslides leaving dozens more missing in addition to those killed.

A local official in Ehime, in western Japan, said the toll in his area had jumped from six to 16, bringing the official national fatality figure to at least 30 dead, since the massive rains began on Thursday.

But that figure was expected to rise further, with public broadcaster NHK saying the toll was at 49.

“The number of casualties is expected to increase as we are still in the middle of collecting information,” Yoshinobu Katsuura, a disaster management official of Ehime prefecture, told AFP.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned “the situation is extremely serious” and ordered his government to “make an all-out effort” to rescue those affected. The floods have blanketed entire villages, submerging streets up to roof level. In some places, just the top of traffic lights could be seen above the rising waters.

“My house was simply washed away and completely destroyed,” Toshihide Takigawa, a 35-year-old employee at a gas station in Hiroshima told the Nikkei daily.

“I was in a car and massive floods of water gushed towards me from the front and back and then engulfed the road. I was just able to escape, but I was terrified,” 62-year-old Yuzo Hori told the Mainichi Shimbun daily in Hiroshima.

Authorities have issued their highest level of alert for the rains and ordered more than 1.9 million people to evacuate their homes, mostly in western Japan.

But the orders are not mandatory, and many people have become trapped inside homes that were engulfed by floodwaters or hit by landslides.

Rescue us quickly: The deadly rains began earlier in the week, claiming their first victim on Thursday when a construction worker was swept away by floodwaters in Hyogo prefecture in western Japan.

The toll has risen steadily since then, with many of those reported missing later confirmed dead.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2018