TOKYO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Central Japan was pummeled by heavy rain on Friday with rivers flooding in Aichi and Gifu prefectures, prompting local authorities to initially instruct 74,000 residents in the area to evacuate their homes.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said that as of Friday morning, rainfall measuring 120 millimeters an hour was recorded in the cities of Inuyama and Komaki in Aichi Prefecture, with 74,000 residents being ordered to evacuate by the Inuyama municipality officials in the morning,
While evacuation orders were subsequently lifted later on Friday, local officials said that 3,500 homes remained without power in Aichi and Gifu and transportation routes had been severely affected, with many services suspended.
Local authorities said, however, that no casualties had been reported as of Friday afternoon.
The latest deluge to hit Japan follows torrential rain earlier in the month battering Japan's main southwestern island of Kyushu and claiming the lives of at least 30 people with around 20 still unaccounted for.
Japan's public broadcaster NHK said Friday that local police have conducted DNA tests on bodies recovered from Ariake Sea last Saturday. Ariake Sea is not in the immediate vicinity of the disaster-hit areas.
But rescue officials believe the bodies may have been washed downstream along the Chikugo River, which flows through Kumamoto, Oita, Fukuoka and Saga prefectures, and into the sea.
Police said that they had recently identified one of the bodies as a 68-year-old woman from Asakura City in Fukuoka. The woman went missing in the downpour.
Police said that she may have been washed out to sea by a swollen river, NHK said.
Meanwhile, reconstruction work has swung into gear, with Fukuoka city receiving some 100 tons of debris per day, comprising furniture and household goods from homes damaged by floods and landslides.
Other cities in the hardest-hit areas will also begin the process of disposing the vast amount of debris caused by the deluge.
Japan's Self-Defense Forces in the region are continuing with searches for those still unaccounted for, while municipalities' efforts are being switched to reconstruction, local officials said.
