Level 5 Heavy Rain Warnings Briefly Issued for 3 Fukui Cities

Tokyo, Aug. 30 (Jiji Press)–The Japan Meteorological Agency issued Level 5 emergency rain warnings for the cities of Fukui, Ono and Katsuyama in the central Japan prefecture of Fukui on Sunday, but later downgraded them. Level 5 is the highest on the agency’s disaster alert scale. After the warnings were issued at 4:30 a.m., the three cities urged residents to take immediate action to protect their lives. The rain weakened later in the morning, and at 11:40 a.m. the agency downgraded the warnings to Level 4, before later lowering them further. The 24-hour rainfall reached 350.5 millimeters in Katsuyama through 9:10 a.m., 318 millimeters in the Miyama area of the city of Fukui through 11 a.m. and 281 millimeters in Ono through 11:20 a.m., all setting new record highs since observations began. Areas that received particularly heavy rainfall may face an increased risk of landslides due to loosened ground conditions. According to the Fukui prefectural government, many rivers overflowed, and flooding damage was confirmed at 16 homes in three cities and one town, including Ono and Katsuyama. A landslide occurred in the city of Fukui, while a sinkhole opened up on a road in the city of Sakai in the same prefecture. A woman in her 30s suffered a broken leg on a flooded road in the city. As of 10:30 a.m., prefectural police had received 106 reports involving stranded vehicles, flooding and other incidents. At a predawn press conference, Takuya Hosomi, director of the meteorological agency’s Forecast Division, explained that a weather front extending from the Sea of Japan toward Fukui Prefecture had been fed by warm, moist air flowing northward around the edge of a high-pressure system over the Pacific Ocean, causing thunderclouds to develop. Hosomi noted that the situation was similar to the one that prompted Level 5 emergency rain warnings in five municipalities in Toyama and Ishikawa prefectures in central Japan on Thursday. However, he emphasized that, rather than extremely intense downpours occurring within a short period, very heavy rain of 50 to 60 millimeters per hour continued intermittently for a long time from Saturday night. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]