Rescuers slog through mud as Japan typhoon death toll rises to 66

HARD TO ESCAPE

Survivors described how water rose rapidly to chest height in about an hour and mainly at night, making it hard to escape to higher ground. Many of the dead in Fukushima were elderly, NHK said.

"I checked the flood hazard map but it didn't have my area as being at risk," said Yoshinagi Higuchi, 68, who lives about 100 metres from one levee and waited out the flood on the second floor of his house as the ground floor filled with water.

"I heard there was a flood once before the war, but we just weren't expecting the water to come over the levee despite all the warnings."

Residents were warned by the public address systems that are a feature of Japanese cities and some evacuated to a local elementary school, he added as he and neighbours piled sodden tatami straw mats and other damaged furniture on the street.

Fukushima is home to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that was crippled by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Officials for Tokyo Electric Power Co, which owns the plant, have said there was no leakage of contaminated water.