Heavy rain causes floods; sends tainted water from Fukushima plant into sea

[yuiyoshida]

TOKYO —



A city in Ibaraki Prefecture was flooded Thursday when a raging river burst its banks, destroying homes and cars as desperate residents waited for help, and as thousands of people were ordered to evacuate.

Dramatic television footage showed a wall of muddy water gushing from the swollen Kinugawa River in Joso city, which is home to around 65,000 people.

Several people are reportedly missing across the country as waist-high floods in some areas left rescuers scrambling to pluck residents to safety as a wide area was deluged in the wake of Typhoon Etau.

The torrential downpour has also exacerbated a contaminated water problem at the Fukushima nuclear plant as it overwhelmed the site’s drainage pumps, a spokesman for operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said.

Hundreds of tons of contaminated water have flowed into the ocean, he added.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/heavy-rain-causes-floods-landslides-in-eastern-japan