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TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan on Thursday ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents of the ancient capital of Kyoto after "historic" rains battered its western region, killing a man, with yet more rain forecast.
About 160,000 people were told they could not continue until Sunday.
"Severe caution is needed," an official of Japan's Meteorological Agency (JMA) told a news conference, warning of the potential for landslides and high winds.
A 59-year-old construction worker died in the western prefecture of NHQ national television said Hyogo after being sucked into a drainage pipe,
Evacuation orders went to Kyoto, with the Kyodo news agency saying about 16,000 people were affected. Television broadcast images of the swollen waters of the Kamo River in the city center.
The heavy rains were brought by a rush of humid air from the south and the remnants of a typhoon this week.
By Thursday afternoon, rainfall of about 457 mm (18 inches) had been recorded in some parts of the island of Shikoku over the last two days, with up to 400 mm (16 inches) more
Typhoon Prapiroon churned up the Sea of Japan this week before weakening into a tropical depression. Another storm, Typhoon Maria, has formed in the Pacific and is set to strengthen, possibly targeting the southwestern islands of Okinawa early next week.
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