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Japan Urges 200,000 People to Evacuate Due to Heavy Rain

Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the risk posed by heavy rains because a warmer atmosphere holds more water. (AFP)
Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the risk posed by heavy rains because a warmer atmosphere holds more water. (AFP)
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Japan Urges 200,000 People to Evacuate Due to Heavy Rain

Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the risk posed by heavy rains because a warmer atmosphere holds more water. (AFP)
Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the risk posed by heavy rains because a warmer atmosphere holds more water. (AFP)

Nearly 200,000 people in western Japan were urged to evacuate on Saturday as authorities warned of landslides and floods, while the remnants of a tropical storm trickle over the country.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said "warm, moist air... was causing heavy rainfall with thunderstorms in western Japan" partly due to Kong-rey, which was downgraded to an extratropical low-pressure system from a typhoon.

The city of Matsuyama "issued the top-level warning, urging 189,552 residents in its 10 districts to evacuate and immediately secure safety", a city official told AFP.

While the evacuation was not mandatory, Japan's highest-level warning is typically issued when it is extremely likely that some kind of disaster has already occurred.

Forecasters warned that landslides and floods could affect western Japan on Saturday and eastern Japan on Sunday.

Due to rain, Shinkansen bullet trains were briefly suspended between Tokyo and southern Fukuoka region in the morning before resuming on a delayed schedule.

Kong-rey smashed into Taiwan on Thursday as one of the biggest storms to hit the island in decades.

It claimed at least three lives and injured 690 people, according to the National Fire Agency, which added a migrant worker death to the toll on Saturday.

The storm knocked out power to 957,061 households, 27,781 of which were still in the dark as of Saturday.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the risk posed by heavy rains because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.

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‘Secret City’ Discovered Underneath Greenland’s Ice Sheets

Construction on the mysterious base began in 1959 (Getty)
Construction on the mysterious base began in 1959 (Getty)
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‘Secret City’ Discovered Underneath Greenland’s Ice Sheets

Construction on the mysterious base began in 1959 (Getty)
Construction on the mysterious base began in 1959 (Getty)

Deep below the thick ice of Greenland lies a labyrinth of tunnels that were once thought to be the safest place on Earth in case of a war.

First created during the Cold War, Project Iceworm saw the US plan to store hundreds of ballistic missiles in a system of tunnels dubbed “Camp Century,” Britain’s the METRO newspaper reported on Wednesday.

At the time, it said, US military chiefs had hoped to launch a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union during the height of Cold War tensions if things escalated.

But less than a decade after it was built, the base was abandoned in 1967 after researchers realized the glacier was moving.

Now, the sprawling sub-zero tunnels have been brought back to attention in the stunning new images.

Alex Gardner, a cryospheric scientist at Nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory said: “We were looking for the bed of the ice and out pops Camp Century. We didn’t know what it was at first. In the new data, individual structures in the secret city are visible in a way that they’ve never been before.”

The underground three-kilometer network of tunnels played host to labs, shops, a cinema, a hospital, and accommodation for hundreds of soldiers.

But the icy Greenland site is not without its dangers – it continues to store nuclear waste.

Assuming the site would remain frozen in perpetuity, the US army removed the nuclear reactor installed on site but allowed waste – equivalent to the mass of 30 Airbus A320 airplanes – to be entombed under the snow, the magazine said.

But other sites around the world – without nuclear waste – could also serve as a safe haven in case of World War 3.

Wood Norton is a tunnel network running deep into the Worcestershire forest, originally bought by the BBC during World War 2 in case of a crisis in London.

Peters Mountain in Virginia, US, serves as one of several secret centers also known as AT&T project offices, which are essential for the US government’s continuity planning.

Further north in the states, Raven Rock Mountain Complex in Pennsylvania is a base that could hold up to 1,400 people.

And Cheyenne Mountain Complex in El Paso County, Colorado, is an underground complex boasting five chambers of reservoirs for fuel and water – and in one section there’s even reportedly an underground lake.