Japan braced Friday for another weekend of drenching rain while the search continued for victims following more than a week of floods and landslides.
At least 66 people were confirmed dead as of Friday morning, and 16 others were missing, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.
Police officers passed buckets full of mud down a line as they dug into the muck of a mudslide in Tsunagi in Kumamoto Prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu.
Kumamoto has been hit hardest by the unprecedented downpours that began Saturday, but damage extends across the entire island, according to the Kyodo News agency.
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With roads washed away or blocked by landslides, about 2,000 people were still stranded in 70 places, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
Some 6,000 homes have been damaged.
The stalled seasonal weather system known as a Baiu front causing the downpours also brought heavy rain to parts of Honshu, Japan's main island, according to the Asahi Shimbun.
In the prefecture of Gifu on Honshu, mudslides and overflowing rivers at one point cut off 5,000 people. The city of Gero received almost 20 inches of rain in the past three days, according to Japan's Meteorological Agency (JMA).
The Hida River in Gero pushed mud and water onto Tamotsu Mori's property. As he and his wife worked to remove the debris, he told Kyodo News the water rose to their thighs at one point.
"The water submerged the wood in our workshop, ruining it for our customers," he said. "How long is the rain going to last?"
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The seasonal rain front is expected to remain stationary and will likely dump torrential rain across wide areas of western and eastern Japan at least through Sunday, the JMA said in an Asahi Shimbun report.
According to the agency, almost 16 inches of rain could fall on Shikoku Island and northern Kyushu Island by 6 a.m. Sunday. Parts of central Japan could see up to 14 inches. The northern parts of Honshu Island could see 4 to 10 inches of rain.
The JMA warned that flooding and landslides are still possible.
"It would not be surprising to see a disaster strike anywhere in the country," the agency said.
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