Three missing in landslide as rains from Typhoon Shanshan lash Japan

TOKYO – Three members of a family remain missing in Japan on Aug 28 after heavy rain from an approaching typhoon triggered a landslide, the authorities said.

Typhoon Shanshan was 80km north-east of the southern Amami archipelago on the morning of Aug 28 with gusts of up to 252kmh.

A wall of mud, rocks and other debris swept away a house in Gamagori, a city in central Aichi prefecture, late on Aug 27 after hours of pounding rain.

“The landslide hit a house where five family members were living – a couple in their 70s, two women in their 40s and a man in his 30s,” a Gamagori official told AFP.

After all-night recovery efforts, both women in their 40s were rescued, but the three others remain unaccounted for, a Gamagori official told AFP.

“Typhoon Shanshan is expected to approach southern Kyushu with extremely strong force through Aug 29, and it may make landfall,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.

Kyushu is home to 12.5 million people.

Southern Kyushu is expected to see 500mm of rain in the 24 hours to the morning of Aug 29, and 600mm in the 24 hours to the morning of Aug 30, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Local governments issued evacuation advisories to 810,000 people in the central Shizuoka prefecture on Honshu because of the rain and to 56,000 others in Kagoshima in Kyushu, the fire and disaster management agency said.

The weather agency may issue a special heavy rain alert for Kagoshima prefecture, including Amami later on Aug 28, an agency official said in a morning news conference.

“It’s necessary for us to be on the highest alert,” he said.

Airlines have cancelled dozens of flights while some bullet train operations may be suspended this week, depending on the course of the typhoon, operators said.

Kyushu Railway said it would suspend some Shinkansen bullet train services between Kumamoto and Kagoshima Chuo from the night of Aug 28 and warned of further possible disruption.

Trains between Tokyo and Fukuoka, the most populous city on Kyushu, may also be cancelled depending on weather conditions this week, other operators said.

This comes in the wake of Typhoon Ampil,

which disrupted hundreds of flights and trains earlier in August.

Despite dumping heavy rain, it caused only minor injuries and damage.

Ampil came days after Tropical Storm Maria brought record rains to northern areas.

Typhoons in the region have been forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change, according to a study released in July. AFP