Death toll climbs to 10 as heavy rains hit typhoon-ravaged eastern Japan
26 October, 2019
The death toll from torrential rains that caused flooding and mudslides in eastern Japan reached 10 on Saturday (Oct 26), with three others missing, public broadcaster NHK reported, just two weeks after the region was hit hard by a powerful typhoon.
On Friday, landslides ripped through waterlogged areas in Chiba and Fukushima prefectures, in eastern and northeastern Japan, which were inundated by their third rainstorms in six weeks. In some places, a month's worth of rain unleashed by a low-pressure system fell in half a day.
Evacuation orders and advisories were issued along much of the northern corridor already hit by two typhoons since last month. The city of Ushiku in Chiba received 283.5mm of rain over 12 hours.
Although the storm had moved away from Japan by Saturday, hundreds of residents were still in evacuation centres and some rail and bus services remained suspended.
The torrential downpour also forced rivers some roads to close and around 4,700 households were still without water in Chiba, the public broadcaster said.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a disaster task force meeting on Saturday, calling for the utmost efforts in rescue and relief work, and assessing the damage.
Authorities warned of the chance of further landslides and floods, especially in areas hit by levee breaks that have yet to be repaired after Typhoon Hagibis lashed central and eastern Japan with heavy rains and high winds.
That typhoon killed at least 88 people, with seven others still missing and more than 300 injured.
"It has been two weeks since the disaster caused by Typhoon 19 (Hagibis) and the rain has continued to fall intermittently so people to need to take the necessary caution," Abe said in a tweet.
Evacuation orders were issued for at least 80,000 people in Chiba, where rivers were rising precariously close to their banks. Most trains services in Chiba were halted, leaving travellers stranded at stations, NHK said.
The government also asked 340,205 people to evacuate their homes in Fukushima prefecture because of possible landslides.
The rain pounded the Tokyo area for much of the day before moving north. Total rainfall in the area around Tokyo was likely to reach around 200 to 300mm by evening, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Some flights to Tokyo were diverted because of the downpour, NHK said.
Tropical storm Bualoi, which battered the Ogasawara islands south of the main Japanese archipelago on Thursday while still at typhoon strength, was heading out into the Pacific and expected to weaken to a tropical depression later on Friday.
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