TOKYO (REUTERS, AFP) - Japan on Friday (Aug 13) issued the most serious level-five risk alerts in the western prefecture of Hiroshima, citing unprecedented rains in the region and imminent risk of floods and other disasters.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued the warning, adding in a statement that the rain front could stay over the country for about a week.
On Thursday, hundreds of thousands of residents of Nagasaki and other parts of Kyushu island in south-west Japan were asked to evacuate to avoid floods and the risk of landslides caused by torrential rain.
"There is a possibility that a grave disaster will occur" in the coming days, a JMA official told an emergency news conference shown live on public broadcaster NHK.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's office set up a disaster control centre on Friday to handle potential disasters. "Torrential rains could continue in regions around western Japan," Mr Suga said.
In Unzen city in southern Nagasaki prefecture, two houses were hit by a landslide with one woman in her 50s feared dead, a local official told Agence France-Presse.
In the city of Hiroshima, "we have issued a special heavy rain warning. This is a level of heavy rain that we have never experienced before", the JMA said in a statement.
The agency official also called the rain in some areas "unprecedented".
The land ministry warned that water levels are extremely high in three rivers - two running through the Hiroshima region, and one in southern Kumamoto.
Scientists say climate change is intensifying the risk of heavy rain in Japan and elsewhere, because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.
Downpours last month caused a devastating landslide in the central resort town of Atami that killed at least 21 people.
And in 2018, more than 200 people died as floods inundated western Japan during the country's annual rainy season.
On Friday, the JMA said that in the 24 hours from 6am on Friday, 300mm of rain is expected in the northern part of Kyushu, with 200mm to 250mm forecast in many other parts of the country.
