Foreign residents in Kyushu ride out the stormーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS

the storm has been getting extensive coverage in Japanese media but for people who don't speak much Japanese it isn't always easy to get all the information they need to stay safe we find out how foreign residents in cusu are coping a Canadian woman living in kagoshima tells NHK world she woke up to An Almighty mess this morning my fence blew away through the night I I was really surprised when I got up this morning because it's like new um the winds picked up a huge piece of Terrace furniture that we had pushed beside the wall and it was under um like a balcony we thought it would be safe there but I guess the wind like literally picked it up and blew it into the fence so it's quite a mess out there Melinda kavara says she's been without electricity for at least 8 hours her kitchen faucet and toilet or on the blink so she's been having to fill up buckets of water from her laundry room kabaha says her neighbors also seem to be having water issues as she seen many people going to a nearby park to use the toilet meanwhile further north in kushu a British man is cautioning other foreign residents that the store may be more intense than anything they have experienced before it's really really heavy rain the river which flows past my house is it's not near bursting but it's really high at the moment Andrew Mitchell is originally from the UK and has lived in Japan for more than a decade he teaches at a university in Kumamoto City he says he has stocked up on everything he thinks he will need this time I've got I think six 2 ler pet bottles I've got some other containers with water in as well I've got lots of Breads in um you know just to eat I've got uh rice and other The Source packs which I can cook with gas if necessary he's part of an online group that includes hundreds of form residents living in Kumamoto prefecture and he's been recommending others to prepare for the worst we don't have things like this in Europe so at least when I first came here it was very easy to think oh it will never happen to me people die in landslides and typhoons because they think oh nothing ever happens and then by the time something does happen it's too late to escape so this is a source of advice I'm given to community like now it's only heavy rain but over the next 12 to 24 hours it could get a lot worse so please stay inside as much as possible an association that supports sharing information with foreign residents during disasters and emergencies says they're doing all they can to get the word out there are are about 10,000 foreigners living in Sag prefecture we believe we can reach them by using their native languages and we set out information on Wednesday morning there have been a lot of evacuation orders issued now Saga has 20 cities and towns and there are currently evacuation orders in place for all residents in seven of them that information is also being sent out in nine languages the association says the biggest issue is whether urgent information can be conveyed to foreigners in real time and they say they're considering what is the most effective way to share that information online