Torrential rain that caused flooding and mudslides in towns east of Tokyo left at least nine people dead and added fresh damage in areas still recovering from recent typhoons, officials said yesterday.
Rescue workers were looking for one person still missing in Chiba. Another person was unaccounted for farther north in Fukushima, which is still reeling from damage wreaked by Typhoon Hagibis earlier this month.
Eight people were reported dead in Chiba and one in Fukushima.
Photo: Kyodo via Reuters
While rains and floodwater subsided, parts of Chiba were still inundated. About 4,700 homes were left without running water and some train services were delayed or suspended.
In Chiba’s Midori district, mudslides crushed three houses, killing three people who were buried underneath them.
Another mudslide hit a house in the nearby city of Ichihara, killing a woman.
In Narata and Chonan towns, three drivers drowned when their vehicles were submerged.
“There was enormous noise and impact, ‘boom,’ like an earthquake, so I went outside. Then look what happened. I was terrified,” said a resident who lived near the crushed home in Midori. “Rain was even more intense than the typhoons.”
In Fukushima, a woman was found dead in a park in Soma City after a report that a car was washed away. A passenger was still missing.
Rain also washed out Friday’s second round of the PGA Tour’s first tournament in Japan, the Zozo Championship in Inzai City.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday morning held an emergency task force meeting and called for “the utmost effort in rescue and relief operations.”
He also urged quick repairs of electricity, water and other essential services to help restore the lives of the disaster-hit residents.
The Japanese Prime Minister’s Office said the average rainfall for the entire month had fallen in just half a day on Friday.
The downpour came from a low-pressure system above Japan’s main island of Honshu that moved northward later on Friday.
Power was yesterday restored at most of the 6,000 Chiba households that had lost electricity.
Two weeks ago, Typhoon Hagibis caused widespread flooding and left more than 80 people dead or presumed dead across Japan.
Yoshiki Takeuchi, an office worker who lives in a riverside house in Chiba’s Sodegaura city, said he had just finished temporary repairs to his roof after tiles were blown off by a typhoon last month when Friday’s rains hit.
“I wasn’t ready for another disaster like this. I’ve had enough of this, and I need a break,” he told Kyodo News.
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