Tokyo: More than 1,000 soldiers and rescue workers joined the more desperate search on Tuesday for the survivors of a Japanese resort which was destroyed by landslides three days ago.
Four people have been confirmed dead after disaster in Atami in Central Japan and officials said they still could not clarify the fate or existence of 24 other residents.
Helicopter images show a gloomy line and debris that softened along the Bukit Atami district, a popular hot-spring destination.
Rescuers crawl through the destroyed houses and navigate extensive mud stacks at the end of 72 hours that experts say it is very important in the race to save lives.
“There is only so much time left.
We will give everything we have as long as we go and pray that we can find as many people as possible,” said Atami Mayor Sakae Saito to a meeting of local officials on Tuesday morning.
, At one point the population was not counted to stand more than 100, but officials said they had managed to track most of them and confirmed that they were safe.
“Those who remain countless to stand in 24 individuals,” Saito said at a televised meeting.
Confirming the number of people lost after the complicated disaster many families have a summer home in Atami but actually stayed elsewhere, while the elderly population might have moved to a home treatment, local media said.
Landslides fell in several violent waves on Saturday morning during the Japanese annual rainy season.
It follows intense rainy days inside and around Atami, which is about 90 kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
The poles are overthrown, the buried vehicles and buildings lead to their foundations in disasters, which destroyed 130 homes and other buildings.
City officials said on Monday, they had identified one of the dead as Chiyose Suzuki who was 82 years old.
His eldest son Hitoshi, 56, told Kyodo that he was sorry he did not bring his mother who could not walk well with him when the police told them to evacuate.
“I was supposed to be back and took him out of there alone” instead of leaving him, he said as quoted.
Suzuki was taken to the hospital by savior but died there.
Atami reportedly recorded more rainfall in 48 hours rather than usual for the entire July, and survivors told local media they had never experienced strong rain in their lives.
Scientists say climate change intensifies the Japanese rainy season because the warm atmosphere has more water.
In 2018, more than 200 people died when Dahsyat floods flooded Western Japan, and last year decades were killed when the complex assistance effort of Coronavirus Pandemi.