YAMAGATA/AKITA: A male police officer has been confirmed dead and a woman was newly found to have gone missing in heavy rain that is pounding the neighboring northeastern Japan prefectures of Yamagata and Akita.

As of Saturday, fatalities from the disaster stood at two while three people were missing.

According to the Yamagata prefectural police department, two male officers in their 20s who were heading by police car to a resident who had made a distress call in the city of Shinjo on Thursday night were swept away. One of the police officers was found in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest Friday afternoon and was confirmed dead by Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Yamagata city of Sakata said Saturday that an 86-year-old woman is missing.

Due to a seasonal rain front, Yamagata and Akita are likely to see severe rain continue until around Tuesday, and the Japan Meteorological Agency is calling on people to beware of rising and overflowing rivers, landslides and flooding of low-lying areas.

The number of inundated residential buildings in Yamagata and Akita as of Saturday stood at 109 and 164, respectively, the two prefecture said. In Akita, agricultural, forestry and fisheries damage, such as from flooded rice and vegetable fields, has reached 111 million yen.

Seventy-two-hour rainfall totaled 444.0 millimeters by 6:20 a.m. Saturday in the Yamagata town of Mamurogawa, 400.5 millimeters by 5:40 a.m. in Sakata and 283.0 millimeters by 9 a.m. in the Akita city of Kitaakita.

JIJI Press