One dead and two missing in Japan in torrential rains

June 3, 2023

The torrential rains that fell on Japan left one dead, two missing and around 30 injured, officials from the archipelago announced on Saturday, where thousands of inhabitants had been called to evacuate on Friday.

Japanese authorities have called for extreme vigilance “in the face of the risk of landslides, floods and flooding rivers” caused by tropical storm Mawar, previously classified as a typhoon.

In the center of the country, a team of rescuers “found a man in his sixties in a submerged car” and his death was later confirmed, a municipal official from Toyohashi, in the department, told AFP. from Aichi.

To the west, in Wakayama prefecture, where several streams have burst their banks, a search is underway for a missing man and woman, officials told AFP.

A total of six people were seriously injured and 24 others had minor injuries Saturday morning, the National Agency for Fire and Natural Disaster Management said.

Evacuation recommendations – with the maximum alert level – had been issued on Friday, but were downgraded on Saturday as the rainfall waned.

However, new instructions were sent to residents living near Tokyo on Saturday morning due to the risk of flooding.

As several cities, including Toyohashi and Koshigaya on the west coast, recorded 24-hour rainfall records, the Japanese agency asked residents to be “on high alert” for the risk of “landslides”. , river overflows and flooding of low-lying areas”.

Some 4,000 homes in departments near the capital were without power, according to Tokyo’s electricity network, but it was largely restored a few hours later.

Bullet train (shinkansen) traffic was temporarily suspended between Tokyo and Nagoya before resuming at midday, according to the JR train company.

In 2021, heavy rains triggered a landslide in the central resort town of Atami that killed 27 people.

Three years earlier, 200 people had already lost their lives in floods and landslides in the west of the country.

Global warming is intensifying the risk of heavy rains in Japan, with warm air masses carrying more steam, scientists say.

Storm Mawar was still classed as a typhoon when it slammed into the US island of Guam in late May, uprooting trees, washing away homes and temporarily knocking out tens of thousands of residents of power.