Torrential rain disrupts normal life in Japan

Downpours on Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu caused flooding and mudslides on Monday, injuring a number of people and disrupting travel during a Buddhist holiday week.

Evacuation advisories were issued and several people were reported missing.

A low-pressure system has been stuck over the region since last week, dumping torrential rain over the southern prefecture of Kagoshima and the island’s northern part.

The Japan Meteorological Agency early Monday issued the highest-level warning in the prefecture of Kumamoto, saying rainfall had exceeded 40 centimetres (15.7 inches) in the last 24 hours and more was expected through Tuesday afternoon over Kyushu.

The agency later downgraded the alert for Kumamoto as the showers moved east towards the Tokyo region, but kept a lower-level warning for western Japan, where up to 20 centimetres (7.8 inches) of rainfall was expected by noon Tuesday.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said local authorities have issued evacuation advisories to tens of thousands of people in Kumamoto and six other prefectures in the region. Defence troops were deployed to Kagoshima to provide fresh water to the residents in the affected areas, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said.

In Kumamoto, rescue workers were looking for missing people.

A man who went missing while three of his family members waited in a car to head to an evacuation center just as a mudslide hit.

The people in the car were rescued, but the man was later found with no vital signs, according to prefecture officials.

At another location in Kumamoto, an elderly woman was found inside a vehicle that had fallen into a river, but her condition was unknown. Three others were reported missing after falling into swollen rivers, while a person buried underneath a mudslide was rescued alive.

Two people were also reported missing after falling into rivers in nearby Fukuoka prefecture.

In Kamiamakusa city, about 20 people stranded at a camping site and a couple of other residential areas are waiting for rescuers, NHK public television reported.

Television footage showed muddy water gushing down, carrying broken trees and branches, and residents wading through knee-deep floodwater.

Associated Press