Millions evacuated as typhoon Hagibis hits Japan
newspaper reported.
The typhoon has caused more than 1,000 flight cancellations, disrupted train services and forced the closure of factories and shops.
Dozens of rivers around Tokyo have seen water rise to dangerous levels while a number of dams upstream are set to release water due to heavy rain, according to national broadcaster NHK. Water has started to overflow from Tama River, one of the biggest in Tokyo, to around the residential district of Setagaya, according to the land ministry.
Typhoon Hagibis was located around Kawasaki city, just outside of Tokyo, after making landfall in Izu Peninsula earlier, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The storm is expected to move northeast into the Pacific Ocean overnight. Hagibis, which means “speed” in Filipino, was advancing north-northwestward with maximum sustained winds of 144 kilometres per hour, according to the meteorological agency. It was traveling northward at a speed of 40kmph.
The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of dangerously heavy rainfall in
Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, including Gunma, Saitama and Kanagawa, and later expanded the area to include Fukushima and Miyagi to the north. A coastal earthquake also rattled the area.
“Be ready for rainfall of the kind that you have never experienced,” said meteorological agency official Yasushi Kajihara, adding that areas usually safe from disasters may prove vulnerable.
“Take all measures necessary to save your life,” he said. Kajihara said people who live near rivers should take shelter on the second floor or higher of any sturdy building if an officially designated evacuation centre wasn’t easily accessible.