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Over 100,000 people in Japan have been forced out of their homes after unprecedented rain unleashed heavy floods on Thursday, tearing houses from their foundations and uprooting trees.
Helicopters hovering over swirling, muddy waters rescued many people from the roofs of their homes. Two people were missing and at least 17 were injured.
Reuters reports that some areas received double the usual September rainfall in 48 hours after tropical storm Etau swept across Japan’s main island of Honshu. In some places, rain-swollen rivers burst their banks.
A 63-year old woman was missing in a landslide that hit her home while a man in his 70s in the town of Joso, 56 km (35 miles) north of Tokyo, was feared trapped when water engulfed his home, NHK national television said.
“We heard a huge sound like a thunderclap, and then the hillside came down,” a man told NHK, referring to the landslide that swept away his neighbor.