TOKYO (AP) — Downpours on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu caused flooding and mudslides on Monday, injuring a number of people and disrupting travel during a Buddhist holiday week. Evacuation advisories were issued and several people were reported missing.
A low-pressure system has been stuck over the region since last week, dumping torrential rain over the southern prefecture of Kagoshima and the island’s northern part. One woman who had been missing in Kagoshima since Friday was found dead on Sunday, while a man who went missing in Kumamoto on Monday was found without vital signs later in the day, although officials have not yet formally declared him dead.
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A person walks through a flooded parking lot of a store in Kumamoto, southern Japan Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)
People crowd at Hakata station as bullet train services are suspended due to heavy rain, in Hakata, Fukuoka prefecture, southern Japan Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Takumi Sato/Kyodo News via AP)
People crowd at Hakata station as bullet train services are suspended due to heavy rain, in Hakata, Fukuoka prefecture, southern Japan Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Takumi Sato/Kyodo News via AP)
A vehicle advances through a flooded road in Kumamoto, southern Japan Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)
A road is flooded follwoing a heavy rain in Nagasu town, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Naoki Hiraoka/Kyodo News via AP)
The Japan Meteorological Agency early Monday issued the highest-level warning in the prefecture of Kumamoto, saying rainfall had exceeded 40 centimeters (15.7 inches) over 24 hours and more was expected through Tuesday afternoon. The agency later downgraded the alert for Kumamoto as the rain moved east toward the Tokyo region, but kept a lower-level warning for western Japan, where up to 20 centimeters (7.8 inches) of rainfall was expected by noon Tuesday.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said local authorities issued evacuation advisories to tens of thousands of people in Kumamoto and six other prefectures in the region. Defense troops were deployed to Kagoshima to provide fresh water to the residents in the affected areas, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said.
In Kumamoto, rescue workers were looking for missing people. A man went missing while three of his family members waited in a car to head to an evacuation center just as a mudslide hit. The people in the car were rescued, but the man was later found with no vital signs, according to prefecture officials.
At another location in Kumamoto, an elderly woman was found inside a vehicle that had fallen into a river, but her condition was unknown. Three others were reported missing after falling into swollen rivers, while a person buried underneath a mudslide was rescued alive.
Two people were also reported missing after falling into rivers in nearby Fukuoka prefecture.
In Kamiamakusa city, about 20 people stranded at a camping site and a couple of other residential areas are waiting for rescuers, NHK public television reported.
Television footage showed muddy water gushing down, carrying broken trees and branches, and residents wading through knee-deep floodwater. Some people were rescued on boats.
At a shopping arcade in Kagoshima City, shopowners started cleaning their stores when the rain stopped and floodwater subsided. Some of them told NHK that it may take a while before they can resume business because of damage to equipment and merchandise.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said his government was supporting search and rescue operations for the missing and helping others in affected areas. He urged residents “to use maximum caution," encouraging them to "please prioritize actions to save your lives.”
Heavy rain also impacted people traveling during Japan’s Buddhist “Bon” holiday week.
Bullet trains connecting Kagoshima and Hakata in northern Kyushu, as well as local train services, were suspended Monday morning. While trains partially resumed in Kyushu, services were starting to be affected further east on the island of Honshu as heavy rains headed that way.
About 6,000 households lost power in Kumamoto, according to Kyushu Electric Power Co., but nearly half got power back later Monday.
A person walks through a flooded parking lot of a store in Kumamoto, southern Japan Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)
People crowd at Hakata station as bullet train services are suspended due to heavy rain, in Hakata, Fukuoka prefecture, southern Japan Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Takumi Sato/Kyodo News via AP)
People crowd at Hakata station as bullet train services are suspended due to heavy rain, in Hakata, Fukuoka prefecture, southern Japan Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Takumi Sato/Kyodo News via AP)
A vehicle advances through a flooded road in Kumamoto, southern Japan Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)
A road is flooded follwoing a heavy rain in Nagasu town, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Naoki Hiraoka/Kyodo News via AP)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.
SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station.
“It’s so good to be home,” said NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, the capsule commander.
It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February.
Cardman and NASA’s Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who had the health problem or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.
While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board. It was not immediately known when the astronauts would fly from California to their home base in Houston. Platonov’s return to Moscow was also unclear.
NASA stressed repeatedly over the past week that this was not an emergency. The astronaut fell sick or was injured on Jan. 7, prompting NASA to call off the next day’s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, and ultimately resulting in the early return. It was the first time NASA cut short a spaceflight for medical reasons. The Russians had done so decades ago.
The space station has gotten by with three astronauts before, sometimes even with just two. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew, which has two Americans, one French and one Russian astronaut.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov is helped out of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
NASA astronaut Zena Cardman is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule being taken into the recovery vessel after crew members re entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Mike Fincke getting helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows Russian astronaut Oleg Platonov being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, left, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON shortly after having landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Zena Cardman being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA TV shows the SpaceX Dragon departing from the International Space Station shortly after undocking with four NASA Crew-11 members inside on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This photo provided by NASA shows clockwise from bottom left are, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui gathering for a crew portrait wearing their Dragon pressure suits during a suit verification check inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows recovery vessels approaching the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule to evacuate one of the crew members after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
