TOKYO, 5 July (BelTA - Xinhua) - One person died after been swept away by a river swollen by torrential rains brought on by tropical storm Nanmadol and thousands ordered to evacuate as the storm dumped heavy rain along the western coast of Japan on Wednesday.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued emergency heavy rain warning and advisories to the residents of Shimane, a coastal prefecture in the western part of Japan's Honshu Island, and to neighboring prefectures.
The weather agency said a record level of hourly rainfall at 82 millimeters was registered in Hamada City in the west of Shimane Prefecture and said that in the past 24 hours rainfall had exceeded 350 millimeters in some parts of the city.
The agency earlier Wednesday warned residents in Shimane that they were at risk of "severe disasters that happen only once in several decades" and urged people to evacuate to shelters or stay on the higher floors of their houses and buildings if evacuation was not an option.
The local government in Shimane, meanwhile, also urged residents to evacuate and issued a warning to 20,000 residents spanning some 9,200 households, local media reported.
