Heavy Rain Causes Floods, 5M People Under Evacuation Order in Japan

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Torrential rain continued to trigger floods on Saturday in wide areas of southwestern Japan, damaging homes and disrupting transportation a day once a landslide killed one person and left two others missing.

In the southern town of Kurume, rivers overflowed and residents evacuated from their homes on rubber boats as rescue workers pulled them while wading through muddy water.

Heavy rain has been dumped on southern Japan in the week, and therefore the Japan Meteorological Agency said more rain is anticipated in the approaching days as a front is stuck above the Japanese archipelago.

More than five million residents in Japan are ordered to evacuate their homes thanks to the threat of flooding and landslides, as torrential rains batter the country’s southwestern tip.

The strongest evacuation warning, Level 5, was issued on Saturday to more than 1,000,000 folks across the prefectures of Saga, Nagasaki, Fukuoka, and Hiroshima, in line with public broadcaster NHK.

The next-strongest warning, Level 4, was issued to 17 alternative prefectures, affecting a lot of more than four million residents.

The agency expanded serious rain and mudslide warnings within the Kyushu region to different parts of Japan, including Hiroshima, because the rain front slowly moved eastward, bringing downpours to the ancient capital of Kyoto and Nagao in central Japan.

The rains triggered a mudslide Friday in the town of Unzen in Nagasaki prefecture, burying four folks. One of those buried was killed and another was seriously injured. Rescue workers are looking out for the 2 others.

Another mudslide in Hiroshima late Friday left one person seriously injured.

Water levels are still rising in many rivers, threatening to overflow onto the encircling roads.

Some cities on the southern island of Kyushu recorded a lot of than 40 millimeters (about 1.6 inches) of water in one hour on Saturday. Up to 250 millimeters (9.8 inches) might fall on the island in the twenty-four hours through Sunday morning, national weather officials say.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga tweeted on Friday that he had founded a disaster control center to coordinate with local and prefecture authorities.