The death toll keeps climbing. As Japan braces for more bad news, the worst weather system to visit the country in decades brings with it misery in the form of many terrifying stories, including neighbors helplessly watching neighbors swept away and death tolls rising to the high hundreds and that's the least estimate.
Japan, which had shown some resilience after the earthquake/tsunami of 2011, has yet to recover from this latest horror. BBC UK relays figures of 179 people dead and 70 missing. Most of them have been swept away by the floods brought about by torrential rains from rainfall due to a weather system.
The feeling of helplessness is evident through the stories of the people who experienced the onslaught of the flood.
270,000 households are without power, water, and their owners displaced. Yusuke Fujii, a resident of Okayama, thought they were safe. However, they didn't manage to steer clear of the flood and are currently seeking shelter in temporary evacuation centers put up in gymnasiums and school halls.
There are also stories of people like Hiroko Fukuda, whose daughter was sent away after she stopped eating. The child was said to have been stressed out by the situation she saw that prompted her choice. Her story is only one of so many that tell of the hardships of people in Okayama as well as Hiroshima and Yamaguchi, the other counties submerged by the flood.
Sadly, the event managed to break a record-that of the most deadly and devastating disaster in Japanese history. Channel News Asia reports that infamy previously belonged to the Fukushima incident in 2011. As for the flooding, however, it's been ten years since a disaster of this magnitude happened.
Japan has started to bounce back, sending around 75,000 emergency personnel to the regions most affected by flooding as well as landslides. Despite the death toll, the workers are trying to remain positive as they sift through the wreckage for survivors. However, they are keeping a grim outlook on things.
The stories of people have been about loss, missing neighbors, and friends, as well as gone relatives. Sadly, it seems that it will be a long time before the situation manages to transcend from difficulty to one of normalcy.
