Death toll rises to 26 as typhoon lashes Japan

Tens of thousands of troops and rescuers deployed as 6 million urged to evacuate

In what may be Japan's worst storm in six decades, Typhoon Hagibis slammed into the country on Saturday evening, leaving at least 26 dead. Almost 6 million people were urged to evacuate.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK said that 18 people were missing and 175 injured. Almost half a million homes lost power.

More than 100,000 rescue personnel were working into the night to save stranded residents and fight floods caused by the devastating typhoon.

Ten rivers in central and northeastern Japan burst their banks while dozens of others had overflowed, the government said, complicating rescue efforts. Evacuation centers filled up with residents.

The typhoon made landfall just before 7 pm on Saturday in Ito, a resort town on the Izu Peninsula southwest of Tokyo, said the Japan Meteorological Agency. It said that sustained winds from the typhoon had been measured at about 160 kilometers per hour, with gusts of up to 217 kph, making the typhoon a Level 5 Emergency - Japan's top level - in towns and cities in 12 prefectures.

By midnight, the typhoon had passed through the capital, leaving some western parts of the city flooded.

"It is a Level 5 situation; some sort of disaster may have already taken place," said the Meteorological Agency official Yasushi Kajiwara.

By Saturday night, local governments had ordered more than 6 million people to evacuate their homes, including 432,000 people in Tokyo's Edogawa ward because of fears of heavy flooding.

Meanwhile, NHK said more than 900,000 people had been urged to evacuate in Kawasaki, outside the capital.

As of midnight, 432,000 households were without power across Tokyo and Shizuoka, said Tokyo Electric Power Company while hundreds of flights were canceled in anticipation of Hagibis on Saturday, including all the flights of All Nippon Airways from airports in Tokyo.

Japan Railways also stopped service in the Tokyo region on Saturday, as well as the bullet train between Tokyo and Osaka.

One of 26 fatalities died in a tornado caused by the storm in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo. Early on Saturday evening, an earthquake measuring 5.7 magnitude also shook Chiba. The tornado destroyed 12 houses and damaged more than 70 others there.

In Gunma prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, four people died after their houses were swept away by a landslide, police said.

Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency also confirmed around 175 people had been injured. NHK said at least 18 other people were missing while record rains flooded rivers and caused several landslides in Sagamihara, a suburb of Tokyo, and in Shizuoka, a coastal city to the southwest.

Rescue work is under way in regions hit by floods and landslides, said Japan's Defense Ministry which had mobilized about 27,000 Self-Defense Force personnel for rescue and relief operations across the country.

"At a moment when the typhoon came, I really felt that my house was shaking because of the wind," Hiroshi Ishimoto who lived in the Ariake, south of Tokyo told China Daily.

wangxu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/14/2019 page11)