A severe tropical storm moved towards Tokyo on Wednesday, triggering flood warnings and evacuation advisories for hundreds of thousands of residents after torrential rain battered large parts of Japan and knocked out power to nearly 60,000 homes.
Storm Jangmi, which was downgraded from a typhoon after making landfall, left 15 people with minor injuries in southern Japan and caused widespread disruptions to transport and businesses.
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Where was Jangmi’s centre?
The storm’s centre was located off Japan’s main island of Honshu and was moving northeast towards the greater Tokyo region.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said Jangmi was packing maximum sustained winds of up to 25 metres per second and warned that some areas along the Pacific coast faced an increasing risk of “life-threatening disasters”.
The storm had a central pressure of 980 hPa and had cut power to nearly 60,000 households, government spokesperson Minoru Kihara said during a regular press briefing, according to a Reuters report.
“If you sense any danger, please do not hesitate to take early action to protect your lives,” Kihara said.
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Evacuation advisory to over 3,70,000 people
Evacuation advisories were issued to hundreds of thousands of residents across eight prefectures in southwestern, central and eastern Japan, while the government said around 3,70,000 people from Shikoku island in western Japan to the Tokyo region had been urged to move to safer locations, news agency AFP reported.
Torrential rain caused rivers to swell in western and eastern Japan, including areas around Tokyo.
The JMA issued flood warnings for several regions, including densely populated Aichi prefecture and Tokyo, and later issued its highest-level flood warning for some areas in central and eastern Japan, urging residents living along rivers and in vulnerable areas to move to higher ground.
Heavy rain paralysed road traffic in Tokyo, while television footage showed the swollen, muddy waters of the Zenpukuji River nearing overflow.
Flights cancelled, services suspended
Jangmi dumped 50 centimetres of rain over the past 24 hours in the Owase area in central Japan. Up to 20 centimetres of additional rainfall was forecast through Thursday morning in some regions, including Tokyo, according to the JMA.
The storm had earlier struck Okinawa and made landfall in Wakayama prefecture with winds of 126 kmph before weakening significantly after moving inland. By mid-morning on Wednesday, JMA said the storm was east of Shima city and moving northeast with maximum sustained winds of 90 kmph.
Transport services across the country were severely affected. Airlines including Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways cancelled nearly 900 domestic and international flights, while all flights scheduled to depart from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport before noon were called off.
More than 90 international services operated by the two carriers were among those cancelled.
Rail services were also disrupted. Some bullet train services in Kyushu and western Japan were delayed, while East Japan Railway said several lines in the Tokyo area had been suspended and more services could be affected during the day.
The Tokaido Shinkansen continued operating on Wednesday morning, though delays were possible, and the Yamagata Shinkansen was expected to experience disruptions from noon to evening.
Bracing for severe weather, Toyota Motor said it would suspend operations at 13 domestic plants on Wednesday morning. Suzuki Motor also halted work at all five of its factories in Shizuoka prefecture, west of Tokyo.
As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, authorities reported no new injuries, though six buildings had been partially destroyed.