FUKUOKA: Staff members at a hospital in Kurume in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Fukuoka are working hard to resume operations after a recent heavy rain flooded the facility.

A mudslide caused by the torrential rain that hit the northern part of the Kyushu region, which includes Fukuoka, left one person dead in the city. At Tanushimaru Central Hospital in Kurume, all patients have been safely evacuated, and staff workers are busy cleaning up mud.

Around 5 a.m. Monday, the first floor of the key hospital in the city was flooded by about 30 centimeters. Around 50 patients were evacuated to upper floors immediately. Soon after the evacuation was completed, however, elevators stopped working due to a power failure.

As the hospital became unable to provide dialysis and other medical care, patients were temporarily transferred to a nearby hospital.

With electricity and water supplies remaining unavailable as of Tuesday, Tanushimaru Central Hospital is operating medical equipment using an emergency power system. On Tuesday, all hospital staff and volunteers worked to remove the floodwater and mud.

While being unable to accept outpatients in the situation, the hospital is providing care to elderly people complaining about health issues.

The Fukuoka prefectural and Kurume city governments, and a disaster medical assistance team, or DMAT, then started to offer help to the hospital.

But it remains to be seen when the hospital can resume operations.

Appropriate medical care “cannot be provided unless checks are carried out for electricity supply and medical equipment,” hospital official Takatoshi Ishitobi, 56, said. “We hope to restart as early as tomorrow. Actually, however, it will likely take a few days.”

JIJI Press