Almost 200,000 inhabitants of a city in western Japan were called to evacuate on Saturday, November 2, by authorities, who fear landslides and flooding due to heavy rains after the passage of a typhoon.
The city of Matsuyama, in the Ehime department, “It issued a higher alert level, asking 189,552 residents of its ten neighborhoods to evacuate and shelter immediately”a city official told Agence France-Presse. Evacuations are not mandatory.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, “hot, humid air (…) causes heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorms in western Japan »partly due to Kong-rey, a powerful typhoon that hit Taiwan on Thursday, before being downgraded to a depression. The agency warned of possible landslides and flooding in western Japan on Saturday and in the east on Sunday.
Three dead and almost 700 injured
Due to rain, Shinkansen bullet train traffic was briefly suspended in the morning between Tokyo and the Fukuoka region of southern Japan.
Typhoon Kong-rey caused the death of three people in Taiwan and left 690 injured, according to a latest report published on Saturday by the National Fire Agency. Nearly 28,000 residents remained without power on the island on Saturday after outages affected nearly a million residents at their peak.
Scientists say human-induced climate change intensifies the risks posed by heavy rainfall because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.
In September, a river on the Noto Peninsula in central Japan overflowed its banks, swollen by exceptional rains, becoming a torrent of mud that flooded roads and an isolated village, killing about 15 people.
