Heightened alert issued as heavy rain hits Japan’s Okinawa
Japan's weather agency on Sunday urged Okinawa residents to be on high alert for mudslides and other disasters as torrential rains are drenching the country's southernmost prefecture.
A woman in her 70s died after a landslide hit her house in Fukuoka prefecture on Monday as heavy rain pounded parts of Japan’s southwestern region, local media reported.
An emergency call was made at around 3.40 a.m. on Monday that an elderly couple were trapped in their house in the town of Soeda due to the landslide, Xinhua quoted Kyodo News as saying citing local authorities.
The woman was later confirmed dead while her husband was slightly injured, it added.
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The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said Kurume in Fukuoka logged record rainfall for a three-hour period of 167 mm as of 6:20 a.m. Monday.
As heavy precipitation is expected from western and eastern regions facing the Sea of Japan through Tuesday, the weather agency warned of landslides and floods in Fukuoka prefecture and neighboring Oita.
In the 24 hours through 6 a.m. Tuesday, up to 200 millimeters of rainfall was forecast in the northern Kyushu region, up to 100 mm in the Chugoku region in western Japan and up to 80 mm in the central Hokuriku region.
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