Half a million people in Japan under evacuation warning due to heavy rains
Tokyo, Aug 15 (EFE).- The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) on Sunday maintained the maximum evacuation warning for over half-a-million people in six prefectures in the west, center and east of the country due to heavy rainfall over the weekend.
The JMA’s level 5 evacuation warning – the highest possible alert – affects about 510,000 people residing in the western Saga, Fukuoka, Shimane and Hiroshima prefectures, Nagano in central Japan, and Chiba, an eastern prefecture bordering the Tokyo region, which is also under heavy rainfall since Sunday.
The JMA has issued flood and landslide warnings in several areas around the Japanese capital.
Five people were buried under a landslide in the city of Okaya in the central Nagano prefecture on Sunday, three of whom died, public broadcaster NHK reported.
On Friday, a landslide swept two houses in Unzen in Nagasaki, causing the death of a 59-year-old woman, whose daughter and husband are still missing.
A total of six people have died due to heavy rains while four are missing and three injured in the western part of the archipelago.
Other prefectures including Kyoto and Gifu saw heavy rainfall that caused rivers to overflow on Saturday.
The rain front that has wreaked havoc in the southwest and west of the country is now moving east, according to the JMA. EFE
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