Torrents of rainfall and flooding battered a widespread area in southwestern Japan yesterday, with local media casualty reports climbing quickly. Public broadcaster NHK said 38 people were dead, four were injured seriously and 47 were missing. Television footage showed a residential area in Okayama prefecture seeped in brown water spreading like a huge lake. Some people fled to rooftops and balconies and waved furiously at hovering rescue helicopters.

Okayama prefecture said a man caught in a landslide died, and six others were missing. Evacuation orders had been issued to more than 3,60,000 people, the prefecture said in a statement. Throughout the affected areas, parked cars sat in pools of water. NHK TV said water had reached as high as 16 feet in the worst-hit areas. Kyodo news service, which put the death tally at 34 people, said one death was in a landslide in Hiroshima, which had set off a fire, while the body of a child was found in another area. NHK said a woman died in her home in Hiroshima when it got buried in a mudslide.