Survivor window closing in Atami landslide; 24 unaccounted for

It is difficult to correlate climate change to any single event happening, after all many other factors are involved, but if the experts are right it means these kind of disasters may become more and more common in the near future, maybe including places that had been safe until now.

Landslides were once called Yama Tsunami.

UKUK is right, some of the structures you see that serve as homes are very basic. Govt needs to support lower income people with better homes. Tin on wooden frames isn't going to hack it.

Now on TBS: The land where the collapse began was not natural but waste fill that was then sold as an investment.

Very sad.

This is really a "mission impossible" the area is so long and wide with thousands of tons of mud and debris.

What people have to understand is the real "possigle political reason behind the mud landslide" Those homes have been there for years, regardless of how old they were and no home no matter how strong of materials it was built with would have been able to not sustain some damage from such an event. With that said do a little more research and ask WHY the mayor of the town allowed the chinese to come in excavate and remove hundreds if not thousands of trees to put in solar panels? Climate change my arse, this is man made!! Removing the trees and their roots and with heavy rains you are asking for trouble. Do some research this is why this happened but no one wants to talk about the real reason. Go to the mayors office and ask why and identify the location. Bingo there's your reason, the untold truth!

Both train tracks still operating and enter tunnels at the location in the photo.

Hmmmm.. Indeed ! Something doesn't seem right about this .. could this have been caused / triggered by a tunnel excavation ?

Hmmmm.. Indeed ! Something doesn't seem right about this .. could this have been caused / triggered by a tunnel excavation ?

Eh, those train tunnels are not new. How many decades have they been there?

Hills landfills

Anyone who thinks the housing os of a good standard, just watch the news! When reporters are interviewing residents, look at their houses/shacks. Very poor quality.

*Confirming the number of people missing after the disaster has been complicated -- many families have summer homes in Atami but actually live elsewhere. *WoW you would think the government would ask those people who own summer homes to self report so that they can get an accurate accounting. I am sure the people have cellphones and is aware of the event.

City officials said Monday they had identified one of the dead as 82-year-old Chiyose Suzuki. Her eldest son Hitoshi, 56, told Kyodo that he regretted not bringing his mother -- who could not walk well -- with him when police told them to evacuate. "I should have gone back and taken her out of there myself" instead of leaving her behind, he was quoted as saying. Suzuki was taken to hospital by rescuers but died there. Ok so Hitoshi decides to abandon his mom and leave her behind when the police asked everyone to evacuate and now he has remorse!!! What a clueless, selfish son!! What a memory for Hitoshi and thought to have for the rest of life. All I can think of he only thought about saving his on life!

It’s the place (geographical, type of soil etc.) not the type of house or what it is made of. And please, don’t always bring in your climate change ideology. There have always been landslides for aeons, those without people hundreds of thousands years ago, those with people who couldn’t even write climate change for very many centuries and there also will be further landslides whether your damned climate changes or does not.

Some of the quality of the homes is just so poor. Like corrugated shacks, absolutely no chance of withstanding that mass of fast moving debris. Hi-tech slum and some. I feel for the man who lost his mother, but why not get her on your back, am sure if she was an atypical obaa-chan that she'd have been light as a rucksack.