Japanese authorities called on Monday several million people to evacuate their homes due to floods and landslides. They occurred after violent rains in southwest Japan, which have made several missing.
Images of Japanese television show several areas of the department of Kumamoto where houses, shops and vehicles are invaded by waters about a meter high.
In six hours Monday morning, more than 37 centimeters of precipitation fell on the city of Tamana, the most affected by the rain. This is a record at the local level, according to the Japanese weather agency.
‘The situation presents a deadly danger and security must be ensured immediately,’ warned meteorologists, adding that maximum vigilance (was) required ‘.
In total, warnings and calls to evacuate have been issued for more than three million inhabitants of southwest regions of Japan, according to the management agency for fire and disasters. Some 384,000 people residing for the most part in the Kumamoto are subject to the highest level of alert, from the same source.
A man from Kosa, in Kumamoto, was missing on Monday after a landslide that hit his home, a local official told AFP.
In Misato, another city in the department, rescuers seek to help an elderly man trapped inside his accommodation also affected by a landslide, a local official at AFP told.
Two people from the big city of Fukuoka were swept away on Sunday by a river and are still missing on Monday, according to the NHK public media.
/ATS