34 confirmed dead or missing after heavy rain in southwestern Japan

This happens every single year.

"After corona, we have this. This is too harsh."

Life's problems just refuse to get in line and tend to go at you all at the same time. I just pray for those people affected by this. Stay safe for those living in these areas. This is why when our area got flooded by rains a couple of years ago is when we decided to buy truck inner tubes to use as floats for our senior citizens. They're cheap, durable, easy to store and are buoyant enough to keep an adult human afloat.

The mass drowning at a retirement home is really upsetting. Living your golden years should not invole drowning.

Nature hits Japan hard, very hard. It is part of living here.

That should not happen at an old people's home. They should be evacuated even when the flood risk level is low, given the difficulty and time involved. Weather forecasts are very good now, so they will have seen the rain coming.

The flooding is probably going to get worse in the years to come. Japan will have to upgrade its anti-flooding infrastructure. So sorry for the families who lost loved ones.

Forest vegetation, especially tree roots, helps stabilize hillslopes by reinforcing soil shear strength. Plant something other than cedar trees with their short roots, to reduce the risk of landslides.

My condoleances to all those affected.

The Nursing home deaths are just heartbreaking, it is difficult to imagine what must have happened to all those helpless people.

Japan almost always suffers from flooding during its rainy season but rescue and evacuation efforts this year have been further complicated by the coronavirus outbreak.

Japan is the country of natural disasters for thousands of years but lack of support from Government. Then why holding Tokyo Olympics/Paralympics?

my condolences to all and kudos to all responders

Question; why do so many people die during floods? It seems to happen every time there is a major flood.

Couple of factors I can see. One; the landslides - If you watch the footage, many of the destroyed and affected houses are on hills or at the bases of hills - heavily wooded hills. Japanese sugi trees are big trees with shallow roots that don't do a great job at providing any support, that just add extra weight to saturated soils, and the whole lot comes down. These houses are frequently the ones that get demolished, killing the occupants. The government seriously needs to look at building codes and red zone these properties. Never allowing rebuilding. These people also need to obey evacuation orders.

Two: Flash floods and burst riverbanks. The sheer volume of rain that can occur here in short periods can cause floodwaters to rise meters in minutes, trapping people who live on the flood plains. These people also need to obey evacuation orders.

Flood plains are bad places to live, most cities have maps available that map-projected flooding areas and predicted water depth. Before you buy a home or even rent one, it would be very wise to seek these flood maps. My local town had one spot with projected flooding depth of 4 m if the river burst its banks. Houses always sell for dirt cheap in that area.

Houses at the bottom of steeped wooded hills or on the same hills are also bad news.

Kyushu in general, wouldn't be among my list of places to live. Annual heavy floods, many typhoons, multiple active volcanoes, earthquakes and historical tsunami devastation, about the only thing they don't have is snow avalanches

Absolutely horrible news. Its about time Japan catches a break for once.

Sorry for all those who suffered.

people cut trees around their villages. What do you think will happen? It’s like collecting mountain vegetables in bear areas. Cause and effect folks.

Just watching the news, it's absolute carnage. They showed the town of Yatsuhiro in Kumamoto, withing 9 minutes the street was metres under water. Cars bobbing around everywhere, rivers of trash flowing away, grannies being plucked off rooves. This massive steel bridge got swept away at 6am, it must usually be about 7 or 8 metres above the river.

https://goo.gl/maps/HR7yuNBpihRDecie9

This particular rain front looks likely to keep hitting until well into Wednesday so it's not getting better any time soon.

I have just been looking at the picture. in the picture there is a car that looks like its nose diving down the hill side. One, its either slipped down the hill or two its been washed up there, and judging by the amount of detritus that is in the power lines, it looks like it was washed up there with high water. Crikey that's some water.