TOKYO, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Japan's weather agency issued its highest-level emergency warning for heavy rain on Thursday for some areas in the central prefectures of Toyama and Ishikawa.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued the Level 5 emergency warning at 6:20 a.m. local time for municipalities including Himi in Toyama Prefecture and Hakui, Shika, Hodatsushimizu and Nakanoto in Ishikawa Prefecture, warning that a disaster was already occurring or was highly likely to occur.
Around 180,000 people in five municipalities in the two prefectures were urged to take safety measures.
Torrential rain began falling in the Noto Peninsula area in central Japan in the early hours of Thursday. Six-hour rainfall through 6:20 a.m. local time reached 211 millimeters in Himi and 210 millimeters in Hakui, according to the JMA.
For the 24 hours through Friday morning, weather officials forecast up to 180 millimeters of rain in the Hokuriku region along the Sea of Japan coast and up to 150 millimeters in the Kanto-Koshin and Tokai regions and Niigata Prefecture.
Earlier this month, a Level 5 emergency warning was issued in some municipalities in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, amid heavy rain that left 13 people dead. Flooding subsequently stranded cars on roads across the prefecture, with about 2,500 vehicles abandoned at one point, Kyodo News reported. ■
