No Pinoys Affected Yet in Japan Flood: Embassy
MANILA – The Philippine ambassador to Japan said on Thursday that they have yet to receive reports of Filipinos affected by the massive flooding in Japan.
“We have not received any reports of any of our nationals affected by this. But it doesn’t mean that they may not have been evacuated,” Ambassador Manolo Lopez said on ANC’s The Bureau.
Lopez said the local government usually takes very good care of its residents.
“Of casualties, we have not heard of any as of 15 minutes ago,” he said on ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) at around 4 p.m. (Manila time).
Japan evacuated about 100,000 people from their homes on Thursday as days of heavy rains caused rivers to surge over their banks, Reuters reported.
At least two people are missing.
“We Filipinos are used to heavy rains and flooding but if you live in the countryside near the mountainous areas, you could be vulnerable to some landslides,” Lopez said.
The ambassador said that some of the affected areas are covered by the Philippine Consulate in Osaka.
“We are contacting our Osaka consulate to see whether they have any reports. But under the Tokyo jurisdiction, there have been no reports,” he said.
Reuters reported that some areas received double the usual September rainfall within 48 hours after tropical storm Etau swept across the central part of Japan’s main island of Honshu.
“I’ve never seen rain this hard for five continuous days. But now, the sky has cleared and I think tomorrow we expect sunny weather in the Tokyo area,” Lopez said.
The ambassador said the embassy will continue to monitor the situation and will be in touch with Filipino community leaders.
“We are still checking because this is a widespread storm that hit Japan, it could be that in some areas evacuation is very much possible,” he said.
According to the ambassador there are about 20,000 Filipinos residing in the affected prefectures.