Nearly 200,000 residents called to evacuate following heavy rains in Japan

Nearly 200,000 residents of Matsuyama, Japan, were called to evacuate due to the risk of landslides and flooding. Authorities fear heavy rains after a typhoon, also disrupting rail traffic.

Nearly 200,000 residents of a city in western Japan were called to evacuate on Saturday by authorities who fear landslides and flooding due to heavy rains after the passage of a typhoon.

The city of Matsuyama, in the department of Ehime, “issued a higher level alert, asking 189,552 residents in its 10 neighborhoods to evacuate and take shelter immediately”a city official told AFP.

Evacuations are not obligatory.

According to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, “hot and humid air (…) causes heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorms in western Japan”partly because of the Kong-rey phenomenon, a typhoon which hit Taiwan on Thursday, causing the death of two people, 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.

Due to rain, Shinkansen bullet train traffic was suspended between Tokyo and the Fukuoka region in southern Japan in the morning. Traffic then resumed, but with delays.

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, transforming into a muddy torrent that flooded roads and an isolated hamlet, killing around fifteen people.

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