Issei Kato/Reuters
More than 100,000 people were forced to flee their homes in Japan on Thursday after torrential rains brought by Tropical Storm Etau caused widespread flooding. At least two people are missing while television footage from public broadcaster NHK shows military helicopters rescuing the many residents still stranded in their homes. Japan issued a pre-dawn warning of rare heavy rains to five million people. A 63-year-old woman was missing after her home was hit by a landslide while a man in his seventies may have been trapped inside his home as it was swept away by floods, NHK reports. Rainfall swelled to 24 inches in the area around Joso, located about 35 miles north of Tokyo. Officials expect at least eight more inches in areas of eastern Japan, including Fukushima, where rain overwhelmed the nuclear disaster site’s drainage pumps, a spokesman for operator Tokyo Electric Power said.