THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
December 20, 2020 at 15:40 JST
Tourists board a bus near the train station in Yuzawa, Niigata Prefecture, on Dec. 19 after record snowfall turned the surroundings into a winter wonderland. (Koichi Ueda)
Three elderly people died in Yamagata Prefecture between Dec. 18 and 19 as they toiled to remove snow after heavy snowfall blanketed northeastern Japan along the Sea of Japan, according to prefectural police.
Kimino Sugano, an 88-year-old woman, was found dead, covered with snow, lying under the eaves of her home in Obanazawa at 12:35 p.m. on Dec. 19. There was a shovel nearby.
Police said that the pensioner died apparently after a large mass of snow fell from the roof on her.
In Yonezawa, Yumiko Hayakawa, a part-time worker, was pronounced dead two hours after she was found covered in snow under the overhang of a garage at her home at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 18.
Hayakawa, 65, died from suffocation after falling from the garage’s roof where she was trying to remove snow, according to police.
Neighbors saw her clearing snow on the roof of her garage. A ladder positioned next to the garage and a shovel to clear snow were later discovered in the vicinity.
In Mogami, Misao Koseki, 87, was found collapsed near a tool shed on the grounds of his home around 4 p.m. on Dec. 18. He was confirmed dead.
Koseki, a pensioner, died while he was working to clear snow under the overhang of the shed, according to police.
Snow fell more than 2 meters deep in areas along the Sea of Japan in the Tohoku and Hokuriku regions as of the evening of Dec. 19.
The Japan Meteorological Agency urged people in the Tohoku region and Niigata Prefecture to remain alert against the dangers of accumulating snow and slippery roads as road surfaces freeze.
For mountainous areas, the total snowfall for 24 hours through 6 p.m. on Dec. 20 is projected to be 80 centimeters in Niigata Prefecture and in the northern Kanto region, 60 cm in northern Nagano Prefecture and the Tohoku region, 50 cm in Toyama Prefecture, 40 cm in Ishikawa Prefecture and 30 cm in Fukui Prefecture, according to the agency.
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