Between threats of precipitation and strong heat, the weather remained severely disturbed, Saturday August 6, on a good part of Japan, after a week of devastating rains on many regions of the country. They caused at least two deaths in the departments of Iwate and Yamagata (north) and considerable damage to infrastructure, sometimes forcing the authorities to mobilize the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. A railway bridge and a road bridge were washed away by floods in Yamagata Prefecture. “We are trying to assess the extent of the damage and we are doing everything we can to respond”, explained, Friday, August 5, the Minister of Territory and Transport, Tetsuo Saito. In the northeast, the region most affected by rainfall, the Ministry of the Environment called for caution for this Saturday, with temperatures threatening to exceed 30°C and cause heatstroke among residents and residents. volunteers mobilized to clean up the areas damaged by the rain.
At the same time, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) maintained heavy rain forecasts for several departments in the center and west of the Archipelago. It feared up to 150 millimeters of precipitation in the Tokai region (center, around Nagoya), and maintained its alert level at 3 – on a scale ranging from 1 to 5 – in certain areas of the departments of Hyogo and de Mie (center). This level calls for the evacuation of the elderly and people with reduced mobility.
Thirty-seven departments were also subject to precautionary advice (level 2) in the face of the risk of heavy rain or thunderstorms. Shinkansen bullet train traffic remained disrupted on the northeast lines.
Ever increasing damage
However, the situation appears less extreme than the past days, marked by record rainfall. A rain front combined with a low pressure system caused 52 rivers to flood in nine departments in three days. Authorities also counted 22 landslides. The JMA recorded 405.5 millimeters of rainfall in 24 hours through Friday morning in Minamiechizen, central Fukui prefecture. This level is 2.2 times higher than the average for the whole of August. Parts of Shiga and Shimane (western) prefectures also recorded record hourly rainfall.
Heavy rains are not exceptional in Japan, especially in summer, but they intensify, causing ever greater damage. In 2018, floods and landslides killed more than 200 people in western Japan. In 2021, heavy rains caused a devastating landslide in the resort town of Atami (center), which killed 27 people.
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