RESCUES UNDER WAY AS STORM SLAMS JAPAN
A powerful typhoon unleashes heavy rainfall and widespread flooding, leaving at least four dead and 17 missing. »
Rescue efforts for people stranded in flooded areas were in full force Sunday, after a powerful typhoon dashed heavy rainfall and winds through a widespread area of Japan, including Tokyo.
Typhoon Hagibis made landfall south of Tokyo on Saturday and moved north.
It reached Kawasaki, a western part of greater Tokyo, late Saturday and headed to Tsukuba city to the north about an hour later, before it was expected to swerve toward the sea, the agency said.
The storm brought heavy rainfall in wide areas of Japan all day ahead of its landfall, including in Shizuoka and Mie prefectures, southwest of Tokyo, as well as Chiba to the north, which saw power outages and damaged homes in a typhoon last month.
Under gloomy skies, a tornado ripped through Chiba on Saturday, overturning a car in the city of Ichihara and killing a man inside the vehicle, city official Tatsuya Sakamaki said. Five people were injured when the tornado ripped through a house. Their injuries were not life-threatening, Sakamaki said.
An earthquake shook the area drenched by the rainfall shortly before the typhoon made landfall in Shizuoka prefecture Saturday evening. but there were no immediate reports of damage. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.3 quake was centered in the ocean off the coast of Chiba, near Tokyo, and was fairly deep, at 37 miles. Deep quakes tend to cause less damage than shallow ones.
In Shizuoka, one of two men who went missing in the Nishikawa River was rescued, Gotemba city official Fumihiko Katsumata said. Firefighters said the two men were working at a river canal to try to control overflowing when they were swept away.
The typhoon left four people dead, 17 missing and more than 100 people injured, according to public broadcaster NHK. The numbers were growing, underlining the damage from Hagibis, which means “speed” in the Philippine language of Tagalog.
A rescue helicopter hovered in a flooded area in Nagano Prefecture after an embankment of the Chikuma River broke, plucking people from the second floor of a home submerged in muddy waters.
Several other rivers also overflowed, including Tama River near Tokyo, according to NHK.
Authorities warned that the risk of mudslides remained.
Some train service in the Tokyo area, much of which had halted, resumed from early morning, although others were undergoing safety checks and were expected to start later in the day.
Rugby World Cup organizers canceled three games: Canada vs. Namibia, New Zealand vs. Italy and England vs. France. They were the first games ever to be canceled at rugby’s showcase event.
“Following extensive discussions with World Rugby, Kamaishi City and Iwate Prefecture, during which we considered every possibility to make this game happen, we had no option but to cancel the match to ensure the safety of the fans, team, volunteers, and all others involved,” organizing committee chief executive Akira Shimazu said. “It was both a difficult and emotional decision to make, however, I feel it’s the right decision and firmly believe both domestic and foreign fans will understand the decision was made to ensure safety.”
Stores and amusement parks had been closed. The usually crowded train stations and streets of Tokyo were abandoned as people were advised to stay indoors. But life was returning to normal quickly under clear sunny skies.
About 17,000 police and military troops had been standing ready for rescue operations, under government orders.
Evacuation centers had been set up in coastal towns, and tens of thousands of people had evacuated, praying their homes were still there after the storm passed.
The typhoon disrupted a three-day weekend in Japan that includes Sports Day on Monday. Qualifying for a Formula One auto race in Suzuka was pushed from Saturday to Sunday.
The authorities repeatedly warned Hagibis was on par with a typhoon that hit the Tokyo region in 1958. But the safety benefits that Japan’s modernization had brought were apparent. The typhoon six decades ago had left more than 1,200 people dead and half a million houses flooded.