[ad_1]
Heavy rains hit southern Japan for the third day, prompting new warnings on Kyushu and Shikoku islands on Sunday, as the government reported 48 dead and 28 others believed dead
Japanese government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said that 92 people were unknown, mainly in the southern prefecture of Hiroshima.
More than 100 reports of victims were received, such as cars being taken away, he said. Forty helicopters were on rescue mission
"Rescue operations are a battle against time," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters. "The rescue teams are doing everything they can."
The Japan Meteorological Agency said that three hours of rainfall in a region of Kochi Prefecture reached 26.3 centimeters (10.4 inches), the highest since 1976
. "We have never experienced this kind of rain before," said a Japanese Meteorological Agency official [JMA] during a press conference. "It is a situation of extreme danger."
The evaluation of the victims was difficult because of the vast area affected by rainfall, floods and landslides. Authorities have warned that landslides could hit even after the rain has calmed down, with calamity potentially the worst in decades.
An overturned car remains in a street after heavy rain in Ozu, Ehime prefecture, Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo on July 8, 2018.
| Photo credit:
Kyodo / via Reuters
Kochi Prefecture, on Shikoku, issued nearly all-island landslide warnings. The public broadcaster NHK TV showed overturned cars on mud-covered roads. A convenience store worker, who had taken refuge on a nearby roof, said the water was reaching the height of his head
The Japanese government set up an emergency office, designed for such crises as large earthquakes
. Okayama Prefecture, on the main island of Honshu, was oozed into brown water that spread like a huge lake. Some people fled to rooftops and balconies and furiously agitated hovering helicopters. Military paddle boats were also used to bring people to the mainland.
Okayama Prefecture said three people were dead, six others were missing and seven were wounded, six of them seriously. The prefecture said in a statement that evacuation orders had been sent to more than 910,000 people.
Kyodo reported several deaths during a landslide in Hiroshima and several bodies were found in collapsed dwellings. the ancient capital of Kyoto, two areas where rains have been abundant in recent days.
Throughout the hardest-hit areas, rivers swelled and cars parked in puddles. Japan sent troops, firefighters, police and other disaster relief. People have also taken social media to ask for help.
In Ehime Prefecture, a woman was found dead on the second floor of a house buried by a landslide, Kyodo said. Also in Ehime, two elementary schoolgirls and their mother who were sucked into a mudslide were torn out but could not be relaunched, she said.
"Downhill"
"All I've got, A saved woman holding a stuffed poodle told NHK on television
" We had fled to the second upstairs but the water went up then we went up to the third floor, "she said. ] Evacuation orders remained in place for approximately 2 million people and an additional 2.3 million were advised to evacuate, although the rain stopped and floodwaters receded in some areas. areas. Landslide warnings have been issued in more than a quarter of the nation's prefectures.
"My husband could not go home since the road was flooded, and as it was raining, I did not have enough courage to walk. A woman wrote on Twitter, without giving more details.
The rain started last week while the remains of a typhoon were feeding a seasonal rainy front, with hot and humid air. in the Pacific, making it even more active – a model similar to the one that triggered floods in southwestern Japan exactly one year ago that killed dozens of people. The front then stayed at an unusually long place, said the JMA.
An elderly man in a wheelchair is rescued from a flooded area in Kurashiki, Okayama prefecture, Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo on July 8, 2018.
| Photo credit:
Kyodo / via Reuters
Roads were closed and train services suspended in parts of western Japan. Shinkansen high-speed trains resumed on a limited basis after being suspended on Friday.
Automobile manufacturers, including Mazda Motor Corp. and Daihatsu Diesel Manufacturing Co., have suspended their activities Saturday in several factories due to a shortage of parts or hazardous conditions. They decided to decide later Sunday on plans for next week.
The electronics manufacturer Panasonic Corp. said that a factory in Okayama, western Japan, could not be reached due to road closures, although it was closed during the weekend. A decision on next week would be taken Monday
While the Japanese government is closely monitoring the weather and issuing warnings at an early stage, the fact that a large part of the country outside of large cities is mountainous
Reforestation policies after the Second World War, which saw many mountains cut and replanted with trees whose roots are less able to hold water, also contributed to the danger [19659029] (function (d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName (s) [0];
if (d.getElementById (id)) returns;
js = d.createElement (s); js.id = id;
js.async = true;
js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.4";
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore (js, fjs);
} (document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
[ad_2]
Source link
