Level 5 Landslide Warning Issued to Southwestern Japan Town

Tokyo, Sept. 5 (Jiji Press)–The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a Level 5 emergency landslide warning to the island town of Yakushima in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima at 5:10 a.m. Saturday. From Friday night to early Saturday, the town was hit by heavy rain from linear precipitation zones that developed intermittently due to the effects of Typhoon Krovanh, the 24th typhoon of this year, and a tropical depression. At a press conference, Takuya Hosomi, director of the agency’s Forecast Division, urged local residents to evacuate to safe locations. In the Onoaida district of the town, 24-hour rainfall reached 490.5 millimeters until 5:30 a.m., hitting a record high for the area. A maximum instantaneous wind speed of 25.9 meters per second was registered shortly after 12:30 a.m. Typhoon Krovanh is located over the sea north of the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa while the tropical depression is over the sea southeast of Okinawa, according to the agency. Warm and moist air flowed into Yakushima from the southeast due to the typhoon and the tropical depression, and collided with easterly winds, causing cumulonimbus clouds to develop, Hosomi said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]