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| Situation Update No. 1 Ref.no.: SS-20091219-24216-JPN
Situation Update No. 1
On 2009-12-19 at 09:24:47 [UTC]
Event: Snow Storm
Location: Japan Province of Yamagata Tsuruoka City area
Number of Deads: 1 person(s)
Situation: Heavy snow continued to hit northern, eastern and western Japan on Saturday, causing traffic chaos in various parts of the country. Two men were injured in Myoko, Niigata Prefecture, after three heavy trucks collided with another truck that skidded on the Joshinetsu Expressway's outbound lane at around 5:30 a.m. on Saturday. According to police, the accident may have been caused by ice, with the temperature of the area fallen below zero at that time. The section between the Nakago and Joetsu-Takada interchanges was closed while debris and snow was removed. In western Japan, heavy snowfall around Maibara, Shiga Prefecture, forced Tokaido Shinkansen Line bullet trains to cut their speed between Nagoya and Kyoto stations, causing delays of around 15 minutes. The same day, eight areas including Tokyo, Fukuoka, and Choshi, Chiba Prefecture, observed their first ice of the winter as temperatures dropped sharply across the nation. Four cities, including Nagoya, Kagoshima and the Saitama Prefecture city of Kumagaya, had the first snow of the season. According to the Meteorological Agency, intermittent snow is expected in eastern and western regions along the Sea of Japan over the weekend. The predicted 24-hour snowfall until 6 a.m. on Sunday is 70 centimeters in the Hokuriku region, 60 centimeters in the northern Kinki region and the Sea of Japan side of the Tohoku region, 50 centimeters in the Tokai region and Hokkaido and 30 to 40 centimeters in Kanto, Koshin and Sanin regions. |  | | | |
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