Japan’s bird flu cases surge in January
Japan is experiencing a surge of avian influenza outbreaks, with approximately five million chickens and other birds culled across five prefectures this month.
Tens of thousands of troops and rescue workers worked in Japan on Monday to fight floods and help stranded residents after one of the most powerful typhoons hit the country in six decades that killed 36 people.
Over 110,000 members of the police, fire fighting and Self-Defence Forces were taking part in the operations, Efe news quoted public broadcaster NHK as saying in a report.
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Rescue efforts could be hampered as rain is forecast in the affected areas, authorities have asked people to exercise caution amid increased risk of flooding and landslides following record rainfall due to the passage of the typhoon.
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Rivers overflowed their banks at close to a dozen locations — including in Nagano in central Japan, where the Chikuma river breached an embankment and water gushed into residential neighbourhoods, flooding homes up to the second floor.
The passage of Hagibis – the 19th typhoon of the season in the Pacific and one of the most powerful to hit Japan in decades – caused record rainfall in some areas of the archipelago and heavy rains in large parts of the country.
The rains also caused numerous dams located along at least 21 rivers in the country to collapse, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Earlier on Friday, hundreds of flights and trains were cancelled in Japan ahead of the arrival of super typhoon Hagibis, considered one of the most powerful storms in the Pacific this season.
Hagibis made landfall on the main Japanese island of Honshu around 7 pm on Saturday, with wind gusts of up to 216 kilometres per hour (134 miles per hour). A magnitude 5.7 earthquake shook Tokyo shortly after.
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