Emergency River Flooding Warning Briefly Issued for Wakayama due to Typhoon

Tokyo, June 3 (Jiji Press)–Typhoon Jangmi made landfall in the southern part of Wakayama Prefecture around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, leading to the issuance of a Level 5 emergency flooding warning for the Koza River in the western Japan prefecture. The warning was issued at 5:35 a.m. by the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Wakayama prefectural government. As the river, which runs through the Wakayama towns of Kozagawa and Kushimoto, overflowed around the Tsukinose district of Kozagawa, Level 5 emergency evacuation warnings requiring people to take immediate action to protect their lives were issued for some areas of the towns. The emergency flooding warning for the Koza River was downgraded to a flooding advisory at 8:50 a.m. It was the first time that an emergency river flooding warning has been issued since the meteorological agency and the land ministry revised their weather warning system and introduced the alert level last month. “Please evacuate to safer places than where you are now, because your lives are in danger,” Takuya Hosomi, head of the meteorological agency’s Forecast Division, said at a press conference. In the Nishikawa district of Kozagawa, rainfall in the 12 hours until 4:30 a.m. Wednesday reached 300.5 millimeters. Linear precipitous zones formed in southern Wakayama and the southern part of nearby Tokushima Prefecture in the small hours of Wednesday, and in the Izu Peninsula region of Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, and the eastern part of Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, later in the morning. A Level 5 emergency evacuation warning was issued also for part of the Tokushima city of Anan. Level 4 urgent warnings for flooding were issued for rivers including the Zenpukuji and Kanda rivers in Tokyo. Level 4 urgent warnings for heavy rain, landslides or river flooding were issued in many prefectures between the Shikoku western region and the Kanto eastern region. The typhoon caused serious injury to one person in Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan, and minor injuries to 22 people–16 in Okinawa, two in Kagoshima Prefecture and one each in Aichi, Nara, Tokushima and Miyazaki prefectures, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. After making landfall, Typhoon Jangmi moved east over the Pacific Ocean off the Tokai central region and Kanto. It was accompanied by a weather front on its northeast side, causing strong wind and rain across much of the country’s Pacific coast even before landfall. The typhoon is likely to turn into an extratropical cyclone by Thursday. The typhoon was the first to make landfall in June in 14 years. In Owase, Mie Prefecture, rainfall reached 535.5 millimeters in the 24 hours through 6 a.m. Wednesday, setting a June record. In Shimanto, Kochi Prefecture, 24-hour rainfall hit 440.0 millimeters by 1:40 a.m. The city of Kochi marked a maximum instantaneous wind speed of 31.0 meters per second around 2:05 a.m., while Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, saw a maximum instantaneous wind speed of 30.1 meters per second around 2:05 p.m. As of 4 p.m., Typhoon Jangmi had a central atmospheric pressure of 985 hectopascals and a maximum sustained wind speed of 25 meters per second. Wind speeds were 15 meters per second or more in areas within 650 km east of the center of the typhoon and 440 km west of the center. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]