Heavy rain emergency warning issued for southwestern Japan city
The Japan Meteorological Agency temporarily issued a heavy rain emergency warning for Kirishima, a city in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima, on Friday.
The emergency warning was issued at 5 a.m. and was downgraded to a heavy rain warning at 1.30pm.
Also, local authorities issued the highest-level warning on the country's five-tier disaster alert system for Kirishima and parts of the city of Kagoshima the same day, urging residents to take measures to ensure their safety. The warning was removed later in the day.
A linear precipitation zone, or a band of cumulonimbus clouds that causes massive rainfall, occurred intermittently in the prefecture, excluding the Amami Islands region. Southern areas of the Kyushu southwestern region, including Kagoshima Prefecture, were hit by downpours from Thursday evening due to a rain front.
Two women were sent to the hospital after a house collapsed in the Kagoshima city of Aira, according to the city's fire department. Meanwhile, authorities have been unable to contact a woman in her 30s who lives in the house.
In Kirishima, a house collapsed. Two trucks fell off a bridge due to road damage, resulting in two people sustaining minor injuries. Approximately 40 people, including children, were briefly isolated at a campsite due to a road being cut off.
As of 5pm, about 450 homes in the prefecture were without electricity, according to the prefectural government's disaster response headquarters. Some 14,300 homes in Aira were without running water.
In Mizobe, a district in Kirishima, rainfall of 107.5 millimetres was recorded in an hour until 3am, and 24-hour rainfall until 12.50pm reached 506.5 millimetres, a record for the area. The city's Makinohara district had a record 24-hour rainfall of 515.5 millimetres until 8am.
Many flights to and from Kagoshima Airport, located in the Mizobe district, were cancelled, while many train services, including on Kyushu Railway Co.'s Kagoshima line, were suspended.
The rain front is expected to remain around the Kyushu region.
"As even a small amount of rain could pose a higher risk of a disaster, we ask people to continue taking measures to stay safe," Shuichi Tachihara, director of the meteorological agency's Forecast Division, said at a press conference.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters, "We'll take all possible measures to protect the lives of residents."
