In Japan, nearly 200,000 residents called to evacuate following heavy rains

Flooding after heavy rain in Matsuyama, Japan, on November 2, 2024, seen in a screenshot taken from an Instagram video. INSTAGRAM/JEREMY.MOB VIA REUTERS Nearly 200,000 residents of a city in western Japan were called to evacuate on Saturday, November 2, by the authorities, who fear landslides and flooding due to heavy rains after the passage of a typhoon. The city of Matsuyama, in Ehime Prefecture, “issued a higher level alert, asking 189,552 residents in its ten wards to evacuate and take shelter immediately,” the agency was told. France-Presse a city official. Evacuations are not obligatory. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, “hot and humid air (…) is causing heavy rains accompanied by thunderstorms in western Japan”, partly due to Kong-rey, a powerful typhoon which hit Thursday over Taiwan, before being downgraded to a depression. The agency warned of possible landslides and flooding in western Japan on Saturday and in the east on Sunday. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Torrential rains in central Japan demonstrate the growing impact of climate change on the Archipelago Read later Three dead and nearly 700 injured Due to rain, Shinkansen high-speed train traffic was briefly suspended between Tokyo and the Fukuoka region in southern Japan in the morning. Typhoon Kong-rey caused the death of three people in Taiwan and left 690 injured, according to a latest report released on Saturday by the National Fire Agency. Nearly 28,000 inhabitants of the island were still without electricity on Saturday on the island after cuts which affected nearly a million inhabitants at their peak. Scientists say human-induced climate change intensifies the risks posed by heavy rains because a warmer atmosphere holds more water. In September, a river on the Noto Peninsula in central Japan overflowed, swollen by exceptional rains, turning into a muddy torrent flooding roads and an isolated hamlet, killing around 15 people. The World with AFP



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