Record rains lash wide areas of Japan, three feared dead after landslide – Japan braces for more torrential downpours – “I’ve experienced three floods like this so far, but this is the worst”
TOKYO, JAPAN (AFP) – Japan braced for further downpours on Sunday as rescuers sifted through flood and landslide damage after record rain that left at least three dead.
Residents returned to check on their mud-covered homes in the southwest where nearly 2 million people were advised to urgently seek shelter on Saturday as rivers overflowed.
“So many logs tumbled down and crashed into this area” from nearby mountains, an elderly resident of Kanzaki in Saga Prefecture told public broadcaster NHK.
“It was so, so scary,” she said. “You absolutely have to leave when it rains.”
More than a meter (3 feet) of rain has been recorded since Wednesday in the northern part of Kyushu, one of the places hardest hit by a band of intense wet weather stretching across Japan.
Showers had eased in the region on Sunday, with the weather agency downgrading alerts from the top level, but more rain was expected from the evening.
“We have not started to survey human or property damage on a full scale,” said Hironori Fujiki, a city official in Kyushu’s Nagasaki prefecture.
“We have yet to see an entire picture of the disaster,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP). […]
Scientists say climate change is intensifying the risk of heavy rain in Japan and elsewhere because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.
Strong rain last month caused a devastating landslide in the central resort town of Atami that killed 23 people with four still missing.
And in 2018, floods and landslides killed more than 200 people in western Japan during the country’s annual rainy season.
Ryuta Kurora, director of forecasts at Japan’s weather agency, warned that the record rainfall will have loosened the soil in some areas.
“We ask residents to continue to exercise serious caution for landslides,” he said in a televised press briefing. [more]
Japan braces for more torrential downpours
Torrential rains lash wide areas of Japan, three feared dead after landslide
TAKEO, Japan, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Torrential rain lashed much of Japan on Sunday, flooding roads and buildings in the western part of the country, while three people were feared dead after a landslide in central Nagano prefecture.
Large parts of Japan, particularly the southernmost main island of Kyushu, have seen record levels of rainfall, causing rivers to overflow and triggering landslides.
While the rain had stopped in much of Kyushu as of Sunday morning, Tokyo and other parts of the country were pounded by the downpour.
Japan “will continue to face conditions in which a large-scale disaster could occur at anytime, anywhere,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said at a ministerial meeting on Sunday. He called on local municipalities and relevant organisations to cooperate and act with speed on rescue missions and aid.
“We must be on high alert even in areas where the rain has tapered off,” Suga added.
In Takeo, a city in Saga prefecture in Kyushu, entire roads were submerged as rescue workers in wetsuits dragged inflatable boats and surveyed the damage. Local residents carried broomsticks and buckets and waded knee-deep in water.
“I’ve experienced three floods like this so far, but this is the worst,” said Toshimi Kusumoto, a 68-year-old doctor whose clinic was flooded.
Kusumoto waited out the rain with his family on the second floor of his house, he said, located just behind the clinic.
The water reached his house, too, meaning most of the appliances on the ground floor would have to be replaced. His garage was bent out of shape, presumably from the pressure of the water.
His son Daigo said their family was prepared for the flooding but was concerned over the frequency at which torrential downpours were pummelling the area, and was considering re-building his house to raise the ground level.
He had re-built the house only four years ago and it had seen two floods already.
“It’s a bit much if it happens this frequently,” Daigo said, as he hosed down the mud in front of the house.
In 2019, Takeo city was hit by a record downpour that killed three people. The government at the time estimated that such a deluge would only happen once every few decades. [more]
Torrential rains lash wide areas of Japan, three feared dead after landslide
