Man found dead in overturned car as typhoon approaches eastern Japan

TOKYO, Oct 12, 2019, Kyodo. Japan was at its highest alert level Saturday as a major typhoon edged closer to the coast of central Japan and threatened to sweep through Tokyo and other eastern areas, with train operators and airlines suspending most services in the metropolitan area, reported the Kyodo.

Typhoon Hagibis, which could dump amounts of rain not seen since a deadly typhoon in 1958, is expected to make landfall on the Pacific coast of central Japan or eastern Japan on Saturday evening, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The projected path of the typhoon may result in further damage to areas in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo where another powerful typhoon triggered widespread power outages in September.

Chiba’s prefectural government said a tornado hit part of Ichihara city and destroyed a house and damaged at least nine others. Local officials said a man in his 50s was found dead in an overturned car near the destroyed house, as the tornado likely caused his vehicle to roll over. Five people sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to the prefectural government.

At least six injuries were also reported elsewhere in the country.

Central Japan prefectures, such as Mie and Shizuoka, and Kanagawa southwest of Tokyo have issued evacuation advisories to many of their municipalities. The Tokyo metropolitan government advised residents mainly in its western suburbs to evacuate.

As of 3 p.m. Saturday, Typhoon Hagibis was traveling north-northeast at a speed of 30 kilometers per hour, some 130 km south-southwest of Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. It had an atmospheric pressure of 945 hectopascals at its center and was packing winds of up to 216 kph.

The typhoon is forecast to bring winds of 216 kph to the Tokai region in central Japan and the Kanto-Koshin region, including the Tokyo metropolitan area, and could potentially knock over houses, the agency warned.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc said damage to a power-transmission line caused a brief power outage in wide areas of Chiba. The line has been repaired, but over 4,000 homes were still without power in the prefecture.

As of around 2:45 p.m., the power outage was also affecting more than 5,000 other homes in the rest of the utility’s service area.

Up to 1,000 millimeters of rain is expected in the Tokai region, and 600 mm in the Kanto-Koshin region, in the 24-hour period through midnight Saturday, the agency said.

The transport ministry said no departures or arrivals were allowed at Tokyo’s Haneda airport after 2 p.m. The operator of Narita airport near Tokyo said operations there have been suspended since late Saturday morning.

There was no shinkansen bullet train service between Tokyo and Nagoya on Saturday. Just six early morning trains ran between Nagoya and Shin-Osaka, and operations between Shin-Osaka and Okayama are canceled from the afternoon.

East Japan Railway Co said it gradually suspended train runs in the Tokyo metropolitan area from Saturday morning and halted services around 1 p.m., including its Tohoku and Hokuriku shinkansen services.

All Nippon Airways has canceled all domestic flights and most international flights Saturday to and from Haneda as well as Narita airport east of the capital.

Japan Airlines has also canceled most of its Saturday flights.

Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, located in a bayside area near the capital, will be closed from Saturday morning to Sunday noon, according to operator Oriental Land Co. It will be the first whole-day closure for the theme parks since 2011 when a massive earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan.

Many department stores in and around Tokyo including Mitsukoshi, Isetan and Seibu were closed Saturday. Their operators said they will decide later whether to open on Sunday.

Among manufacturers, Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co suspended operations at some of their plants Saturday.

According to the weather agency, the predicted rainfall amounts would be in line with those deposited by Typhoon Ida in September 1958, which left 1,200 people dead or missing across Japan.

That typhoon, known as Kanogawa in Japan, ripped through the Kanto region and the Izu Peninsula, causing the Kano River in Shizuoka Prefecture to overflow.

Tags: Japan