Death toll rises to 33 as rescue effort continues after typhoon
HELICOPTERS, boats and thousands of troops have been deployed across Japan to rescue people stranded in flooded homes as the death toll from a ferocious typhoon climbed to at least 33.
Public broadcaster NHK said 14 rivers across the nation had flooded, some spilling out in more than one spot.
Typhoon Hagibis made landfall south of Tokyo on Saturday and battered central and northern Japan with torrents of rain and powerful gusts of wind.
It weakened yesterday, moving off land.
Seventeen people were still missing yesterday.
“The major typhoon has caused immense damage far and wide in eastern Japan,” government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
He added that 27,000 military personnel and other rescue crews were taking part in the operation.
News footage showed a rescue helicopter hovering over a flooded area in Nagano prefecture where an embankment of the Chikuma River broke, and streams of water were continuing to spread over residential areas.
The helicopter plucked to safety people stranded on the second floor of a home submerged in muddy waters.
In the town of Hakone near Mount Fuji, more than 1m (3ft) of rain fell on Friday and Saturday, the highest total ever recorded in Japan over 48 hours, the BBC reported.
A stretch of Fukushima prefecture, in the city of Date, was also flooded with only rooftops of residential homes visible in some areas, and rescuers used boats to get people out.
Parts of nearby Miyagi prefecture were also under water.
The Tama River, which runs by Tokyo, burst its banks, flooding homes and other buildings in the area. Authorities warned of a risk of mudslides.
Among the reported deaths were those whose homes were buried in landslides. Other fatalities included people who got swept away by raging rivers.
Mr Suga said recovery operations were ongoing.
Some 376,000 homes were without electricity, and 14,000 homes lacked running water, he said.
Boats as well as helicopters were sent to the flooded areas, while rescue crews dug through dirt elsewhere to try to get people out of homes buried by landslides.
Several train services in the Tokyo area resumed, although others were undergoing safety checks and were expected to restart later yesterday.
Ruling party politician Fumio Kishida said the government would do its utmost to help in the aftermath, including making sure that those forced to move to shelters were taken care of.
He acknowledged Japan’s power grids needed to be strengthened so people in disaster areas could rely on timely information.
“So many risks remain, and it is a reality we must stay on guard,” Mr Kishida said on an NHK TV news talk show.
“We must do our utmost. In these times, a disaster can hit any time.”
The authorities had repeatedly warned that Hagibis was on par with a typhoon that hit the Tokyo region in 1958.
But the safety infrastructure that Japan’s modernisation had brought was apparent. The typhoon that hit six decades ago left more than 1,200 people dead and half a million homes flooded.