By Xinhua,
Tokyo : Driving rains starting Thursday night have hit vast areas of Japan, including the Kanto, Chugoku and Tokai regions, leaving one dead and causing enormous damage chiefly in Aichi Prefecture, local media reported Saturday.
The body of a woman, identified as 76-year-old Suzue Kuroyanagi, was found in a flooded two-story house Friday morning in Okazaki, where police and firefighters are searching for an 80-year-old woman after having found two men aged 79 and 73, who were reportedly missing Friday.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency and other sources, the rainfall per hour after midnight peaked at 145 mm in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture; 115 mm in Machida, Tokyo; and 91.5 mm in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture.
In Aichi Prefecture, some 1.27 million people from 500,000 households, including 140,000 households in Okazaki and 360,000 households in Nagoya in particular, have been advised to evacuate the flooded areas.
In Tokyo, Aichi and Mie prefectures, three houses were destroyed or badly damaged, and 614 houses in eight prefectures such as Aichi and Ibaraki were inundated above floor level and 1,263 in 11 prefectures were flooded below floor level. In Okazaki, five rivers running through the city overflowed and a bridge collapsed.
Okazaki City erected shelters at elementary and junior high schools for the evacuees. Meanwhile, an information liaison office was established in the crisis management center at the prime minister’s office to handle emergencies arising from the heavy rain.
Bullet train services, operated by the Central Japan Railway Co., were temporarily suspended between Nagoya and Gifu-Hashima on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, while East Japan Railway Co. temporarily suspended ordinary and express trains between Hachiojiand Otsuki, Yamanashi Prefecture, on the Chuo Line.
The Japan Meteorological Agency on Saturday forecast 150 mm of rain in the 24 hours through 6 a.m. Sunday in the Kanto-Koshin, Tokai, Shikoku and southern Kyushu areas, urging continued caution against possible floods and landslides.