Heavy Rains Lash Japan; Several Killed
T O K Y O, Sept. 12 -- Rescue workers paddled rowboats past inundated buses and homes today in central Japan to pick up residents stranded by floods and mudslides that killed seven people andforced the nation’s biggest carmaker to stop production.
Rainfall totaling 23 inches was recorded over the past 24-hours, the local observatory said. The record rainfall wasexpected to surpass 32 inches in some areas, the MeteorologicalAgency said.
In addition to the dead, 41 people were injured and two weremissing in the floods set off by the torrential rains, the nationalpolice said.
Authorities in the industrial city of Nagoya told more than360,000 people to evacuate their homes, city official TadanobuHoriguchi said. Many sought shelter on the second or third floorsof schools.
Among the seven dead were a 53-year-old firefighter, who fellinto a flooded roadside ditch, and a 49-year-old man buried bymudslides, Horiguchi said.
Rains Slow Industry Giant
Toyota Motor Corp. stopped production nationwide because of thedownpour. Toyota and many of its parts makers are located inNagoya, about 170 miles west of Tokyo, so work stoppages thereaffect operations in other areas.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. also stopped production at its twofactories in Nagoya, company spokesman Isao Sakaibara said.
Torrential rains also cut power to bullet trains, forcing about50,000 passengers to sleep overnight at railway stations or installed trains. Services resumed in the afternoon after a recordinterruption of more than 18 hours.
Fourteen homes were demolished by landslides, and more than12,000 were flooded, police said.
More violent weather is on the way, with typhoon Saomai headingtoward Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island.
Packing winds up to 89 mph, Saomai was 43 miles northwest ofNaha, the capital of Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa,late today. Okinawa is about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo.
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