THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
July 16, 2022 at 15:23 JST
A breach in the embankment of the Nabutagawa river in Osaki, Miyagi Prefecture, floods this home in the Furukawa district. (Arata Mitsui)
Thousands of residents in Miyagi Prefecture were instructed to evacuate July 16 as record rainfall extended to northern areas from the night before.
The Japan Meteorological Agency announced that unprecedented levels of rainfall were observed in a relatively short burst from late July 15.
For example, Osaki recorded 133.5 millimeters of rain in just three hours, the highest ever recorded.
An embankment for the Nabutagawa river in the city was breached and 176 residents of the Furukawa district were told to evacuate immediately if they had not already done so.
Evacuation instructions were issued in seven municipalities, including Sendai and Ishinomaki, covering around 256,000 residents in total.
City government officials in four municipalities in Miyagi Prefecture reported that several dozen homes had been flooded in their jurisdictions.
The JMA said heavy rainfall was expected until early July 17.
For the 24-hour period until 6 a.m., the forecast was for as much as 150 mm of rainfall in the Kinki and Tokai regions; 120 mm for the Tohoku region and Hokkaido; 100 mm in southern Kyushu and the Kanto-Koshin region; and 80 mm in the Shikoku, Chugoku and Hokuriku regions.
The agency also urged residents of the Tohoku region to be on the alert for landslides.
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