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.
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
RSS