At least 11 people were found dead in Japan on Wednesday, most of them elderly residents at a nursing home, as heavy overnight rain from Typhoon Lionrock left towns flooded across the country’s north.
Police discovered nine bodies in the town of Iwaizumi while checking another facility in the flooded neighborhood, said Takehiro Hayashijiri, an official at the Iwate prefecture disaster management division.
The identity of the victims and other details, including the whereabouts of their caretakers, were not known, Hayashijiri said. Japanese public broadcaster NHK said the home was for people with dementia.
Authorities have found two more bodies, one in the same town and the second in another town of Kuji in Iwate prefecture, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
Footage on Japan’s national broadcaster NHK showed the nursing home partially buried in mud, surrounded by debris apparently washed down in the swollen river. A car by the home was turned upside down.
At another nursing home, a rescue helicopter perched atop a flat roof of the facility, airlifting residents, each wrapped in a blanket and carried by their helpers.
“We’re making a government-wide effort to assess the extent of damage,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
The government sent the Self-Defense Force, Japan’s military, to help in the rescue and cleanup effort.
Further north, on the island of Hokkaido, at least two rivers broke through their banks.