Torrential rains brought by a powerful typhoon lashing the country’s Pacific coast caused landslides that killed four people with six missing, public broadcaster NHK said, while snapping electricity supply to about 45,000 homes.
Typhoon Dujuan is the latest extreme weather event in a year of unusually intense rain, floods and tropical cyclones that have hit regions across the globe, from East Asia to North America and Europe.
Mud flowing into a home killed a woman in her 60s in the city of Yokosuka in the Kanto region, after landslides in the areas of Kanagawa and Chiba, the broadcaster said, adding that three other dead ranged in age from the 50s to the 80s.
Rescuers cleared away debris in the city of Miura, also in Kanagawa south of the capital Tokyo, as they searched for a missing person at a house hit by a landslide.
A resident cleared heavy mud from a nearby street after the typhoon moved northeast away from Japan.
About 45,000 households are without electricity in the region, Tokyo Electric Power Co said on its website.
Richard Yonamine, 37, said water flooded his home in the Chiba city of Sakura after a nearby river overflowed, swollen by the rains, in his only such experience over more than three decades.
“I’m scared if it starts raining ... I worry that as soon as it starts pouring, it’ll turn into a major problem,” Yonamine said.
Heavy rain also caused widespread floods last month in Chiba, stranding passengers at the busy Narita airport. — Reuters
