Overflowing rivers swallowed up homes and mudslides forced residents to run for their lives.

That was the scene Friday as heavy rain that began Wednesday continued to wreak havoc in Oita and Fukuoka prefectures.

Panicked residents bombarded the Fukuoka Prefectural Police with some 3,000 emergency phone calls in the space of about a day while officials struggled to grasp the scale of the damage caused by the torrential rain.