NAGOYA: Evacuation orders were issued for a total of 1.32 million households comprising 2.65 million people in Aichi, Mie and Gifu prefectures following Tuesday’s record-breaking heavy rain.
Various areas in Nagoya were inundated, and public transportation services were halted, leaving terminal stations packed with stranded commuters.
A Yomiuri Shimbun tally on Wednesday found that four people in Aichi Prefecture and one in Mie Prefecture were injured. Those hurt included two men in their 20s who sustained minor injuries when their bicycles were swept into an irrigation ditch in Kitanagoya, Aichi Prefecture. Flooding was also confirmed in 43 homes within the prefecture.
Roads in central Nagoya were flooded, and water levels reached about knee-high shortly after 4 p.m. in the bustling commercial area of the city’s Naka Ward.
As of Wednesday, at least 200 vehicles remained stranded in Nagoya after being submerged, although the city government had moved them to the roadside to allow emergency vehicles to pass.
Central Japan Railway Co., Nagoya Railroad Co. and the Nagoya municipal subway suspended operations, leaving many people unable to return home from work.
The city set up 17 temporary evacuation shelters for stranded commuters, providing refuge for up to 1,436 people. JP Tower Nagoya, near Nagoya Station, distributed drinking water, cookies and aluminium blankets, and about 80 people spent the night there. - Japan News/ANN
