Tokyo: More than one million people were urged to seek protection because heavy rains triggered floods and landslides in West Japan on Saturday, leaving at least one and two missing people.
The authorities in Hiroshima and the northern part of Kyushu issued their highest evacuation warnings when the weather body reported an unprecedented level of rain in the area.
Under the non-mandatory warning, around 1.4 million people have been asked to immediately leave their homes, the NHK public broadcaster reported.
TV footage shows rescuers attracting residents through sinking streets in a lifeboat in Kurume City in Fukuoka, while the muddy flow began to overflow in the neighboring saga prefecture.
A 59-year-old woman died and two family members lost after a landslide destroyed two houses in Unzen Prefecture, Nagasaki, said a local official.
“More than 150 soldiers, police and firefighters were sent to the site for rescue surgery,” Takumi Kumasaki told AFP.
“They carefully searched for lost residents, while watching Mudslida further when heavy rains continued.” Rain is predicted for a few more days on the country’s big pot.
Scientists say climate change intensifies the risk of heavy rain in Japan and elsewhere, because the warm atmosphere has more water.
“Unprecedented heavy rain rains have been observed,” Yushi Adachi, a meteorological agent official, told reporters in Tokyo.
“It is very likely that a kind of disaster has occurred,” Adachi said.
“The maximum warning is needed even in areas where the risk of landslides and floods is usually not too high.” Encouraging last month causing a devastating landslide in the Atami Central Resort City which killed 23 people, with four still missing.
And in 2018, more than 200 people died when the flood flooded Western Japan during the country’s annual rainy season.