Japan's weather agency continued to warn of mudslides and flooding Thursday as downpours in southwestern Japan left a second woman dead and a few hundred houses damaged in the region.

Over 8,400 people in Kagoshima, Miyazaki and eight other prefectures were staying at evacuation centers as of early Thursday morning. Most of the evacuation orders affecting residents in the city of Kagoshima and Miyazaki Prefecture were lifted the same day.

Strong winds and rain also hit parts of eastern Japan in the afternoon as low atmospheric pressure approached the area, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

In the city of Soo, Kagoshima, where a record-high 421 millimeters of rain was registered the previous day, Ground Self-Defense Force members and rescue workers searched for an 85-year-old woman after a neighbor made an emergency call in the morning saying her house had been hit by a mudslide. The woman was confirmed dead later Thursday.

"My mother was not able to walk well and could not drive, so maybe she missed the chance to evacuate," said the victim's son, Masami Yamashita, 59.

In the city of Kagoshima, a woman in her 70s was killed Monday, also after being buried by a mudslide that engulfed her house.

(People leave an evacuation center in Miyazaki, southwestern Japan, on July 4, 2019)

The heavy rain triggered mudslides at dozens of places in Kagoshima Prefecture and rivers were swollen, according to the local government. Five people sustained injuries in the prefecture, according to a tally by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

In Miyazaki Prefecture, a dozen people were temporarily stranded after a landslide blocked a road in the city of Miyakonojo.

Since last Friday, a seasonal front has dumped 1,089.5 mm of rainfall in Ebino in Miyazaki Prefecture, 901 mm in Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture, and 612 mm in Yunomae, Kumamoto Prefecture, according to the weather agency.

On Thursday, Toshima in Kagoshima Prefecture received 77 mm of rain per hour and Toba, in the central Japan prefecture of Mie, saw 60.5 mm, while winds of up to 96.12 kilometers per hour were recorded on Miyake Island in the Izu island chain in the Pacific.

For the 24 hours through noon Friday, the agency forecast up to 120 mm of rain on Tanegashima and Yakushima islands in Kagoshima, 100 mm in the Kanto-Koshin region and 70 mm in the Tokai region.

(Photo taken from a Kyodo News helicopter on July 4, 2019, shows a search operation for a missing woman at a house partially buried by a landslide triggered by heavy rain in Soo in Kagoshima Prefecture.)