Two bodies were found on Monday morning at the site of a landslide which occurred at a mountain in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, on Saturday morning.
Police said the bodies are believed to be those of a man in his 80s and his wife, who was in her 70s. The couple had been missing since the landslide struck at around 1 a.m. on Saturday.
Police said both victims were in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest when found between 7 and 8 a.m. They were taken to hospital where they were confirmed dead.
The landslide, which measured 20 to 30 meters in height and 100 meters in width, destroyed or damaged about 10 buildings, Kyodo News reported. Twenty-two people from eight households in the area were evacuated due to the risk of secondary disasters, and have spent the New Year holidays in a shelter.
Isao Akojima, a former professor of geomorphology at Yamagata University, told Kyodo that the landslide was likely caused by a large amount of melted snow and rain loosening subsoil on the mountain, which is made of weathered mudstone more than 15 million years old.
The city saw a record amount of precipitation, including snow, for the month of December as of Friday, according to the Yamagata Meteorological Office.
While landslides in Yamagata often occur in spring for the same reason when the snow melts, "a frequency of once every few decades or few hundred years makes it difficult to predict when they will occur," Akojima said.
© Japan Today/KYODO
9 Comments
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Zoroto
If you buy land, make sure it's not in the Red Zone.
I just bought some land in what's considered the most hilly city in Japan, and it was hard to find one that was a decent size, but also wasn't in the Red or Yellow zones.
diagonalslip
landslide, yes..... but "mountain"? anyway, poor old couple. what a horrible way to go....
Carl N Jpn Gcjp
So Sad to hear about this.
Bob Fosse
“The landslide, which measured 20 to 30 meters in height and 100 meters in width”
Horrific to imagine something like that and not much that could be done if you suddenly found yourself in the path of one.
wallace
Massive volume of soil. Very sad for all concerned.
Nemo
Ugh, what a lousy way to die.
Why would the government even allow residential construction in a Red Zone?
Sanjinosebleed
There have been many of these tragedies! I can’t understand why all houses in these dangerous locations aren’t investigated and either deemed unsafe or the ground stabilised so as to avoid unnecessary deaths!
oh but wait we have to spend money on restarting nuke plants and buying US malfunctioning weapons instead of looking after our own people!
genshijin
Most of Japan is probably a danger zone for landslides. It does not need to be a steep place to happen. When the big ones hit Kanto and Tokaido there will be landslides everywhere.
Desert Tortoise
You know I looked at the big flood map of Japan and that area is not in a red, or even a yellow zone as best as I can tell. The hill, er "mountain", in question is surrounded by flat farmland with many nearby homes and businesses scattered throughout. It's a pretty, bucolic area.