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.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]