Photo by AFP used for illustrative purposes
Nearly 200,000 people in western Japan were advised to evacuate on Saturday as authorities issued warnings about potential landslides and floods due to the remnants of a tropical storm affecting the country. The Japan Meteorological Agency reported that 'warm, moist air... was causing heavy rainfall with thunderstorms in western Japan,' partly due to Kong-rey, which had weakened from a typhoon to an extratropical low-pressure system. The city of Matsuyama 'issued the top-level warning, urging 189,552 residents in its 10 districts to evacuate and immediately secure safety,' a city official informed AFP. Although the evacuation was not mandatory, Japan's highest-level warning is usually issued when a disaster is highly probable. Forecasters cautioned that landslides and floods could impact western Japan on Saturday and eastern Japan on Sunday. Due to the heavy rain, shinkansen bullet trains were temporarily halted between Tokyo and the southern Fukuoka region in the morning but later resumed on a delayed schedule. Kong-rey made landfall in Taiwan on Thursday as one of the most powerful storms to hit the island in recent decades, resulting in at least two fatalities and causing power outages for tens of thousands of households. Scientists attribute the increased risk of heavy rains to human-driven climate change, as a warmer atmosphere can hold more water.
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