Typhoon Hits Japan

It's expected to be Japan's worst in 60 years
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 12, 2019 10:00 AM CDT
Typhoon Hits Japan
Cars sit submerged in water in the residential area hit by Typhoon Hagibis, in Ise, central Japan Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019.   (Kyodo News via AP)

A heavy downpour and strong winds pounded Tokyo and surrounding areas on Saturday as a powerful typhoon forecast to be Japan's worst in six decades made landfall and passed over the capital, where streets, nearby beaches, and train stations were long deserted, the AP reports. Store shelves were bare after people stocked up on water and food ahead of Typhoon Hagibis. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of dangerously heavy rainfall in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, including Gunma, Saitama, and Kanagawa, and later expanded the area to include Fukushima and Miyagi to the north. A coastal earthquake also rattled the area. "Be ready for rainfall of the kind that you have never experienced," said meteorological agency official Yasushi Kajihara.

Hagibis, which means "speed" in Filipino, was advancing north-northwestward with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour, according to the meteorological agency. It was traveling northward at a speed of 25 mph. It reached Kawasaki, a western part of greater Tokyo, late Saturday and headed to Tsukuba city to the north about an hour later, before it was expected to swerve toward the sea, the agency said. The storm brought heavy rainfall in wide areas of Japan all day ahead of its landfall. Under gloomy skies, a tornado ripped through Chiba on Saturday, overturning a car in the city of Ichihara and killing a man inside the vehicle, city official Tatsuya Sakamaki said. The heavy rain caused rivers to swell, and several had flooded by late Saturday.

(More Japan stories.)

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