Japan on alert. Japanese authorities called on Monday several million people to evacuate their home due to floods and landslides that occurred after violent rains in the southwest of the country. They have already disappeared.
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, 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 mostly residing 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 who hit his home, said a local official. 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.