(Watchers) – Record-breaking rainfall hit parts of southern Japan over the past few days, causing deadly mudslides and flooding and forcing authorities to issue evacuation orders to 1.1 million people. Rainfall recorded from Monday, July 1 to Wednesday, July 3 was 554 mm (21.42 inches) in Nichinan city in Miyazaki prefecture. It broke the past all-time three-day record of 457.5 mm (18.01 inches) set on October 30, 2017. During the same period, Kanoya registered 641.5 mm (25.26 inches), breaking the previous three-
day record of 510 mm (20.8 inches) set on July 7, 1993. In just 1 hour on July 3, Toshima village registered 77 mm (3.03 inches) of rain, breaking the old July one-hour record of 73.5 mm (2.89 inches) set in 2016. Although evacuation orders were issued for 1.1 million residents in Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures on July 3 and 4, only 6,301 people actually took shelter, authorities said. “The figure of 6,300 was … rather small,” Nihon University professor Hiromichi Nakamori said, adding that, “…there could be cases in which going outside is more dangerous, depending on the situation in the neighborhood.” READ MORE
