Tokyo, Sep 22 (IANS) The death toll rose to six on Tuesday, with six others still missing, after heavy rain from a large typhoon battered the Kanto region in eastern Japan and triggered landslides and flooding a day earlier, local media reported.
Among the deaths, five were confirmed in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, including a man in his 50s who died after falling into a bamboo grove while operating heavy machinery to clear mud and debris from a landslide. The others were in their 70s and 80s, according to Kyodo News.
Another death was confirmed in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, also near Tokyo, where a woman in her 60s died on Monday after a landslide struck her home and sent mud pouring into the house.
Police and firefighters are continuing to search for the missing people, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Typhoon Dujuan, which approached Japan’s eastern Pacific coast on Monday and is now moving away, brought record rainfall to the Kanto region and the Izu Islands, triggering a series of landslides and river flooding.
Rainfall in Oshima Town in the Izu Island chain over the 48 hours to 8 p.m. local time on Monday reached 832 mm, more than 2.4 times the town’s average rainfall for the entire month of September and the highest since records began, according to public broadcaster NHK. A top-level landslide warning was temporarily issued for the town on Monday.
The typhoon, coming in the middle of the country’s Silver Week holidays, was particularly problematic for Chiba, where intense rain inundated houses and roads and temporarily cut off electricity to about 58,000 households early Tuesday, Kyodo News said.
The typhoon also disrupted transportation, forcing All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines to cancel more than 270 flights, mainly those to and from Tokyo’s Haneda airport, affecting about 40,000 people in total.
–IANS
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