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Heavy Rains Lash Japan: 7 Killed
Rescue workers paddled rowboats past inundated buses and homes Sept. 12 in central Japan to pick up residents stranded by floods and mudslides that killed seven people and forced 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 was expected to surpass 32 inches in some areas, the Meteorological Agency said.
In addition to the dead, 41 people were injured and two were missing in the floods set off by the torrential rains,the national police said.
Authorities in the industrial city of Nagoya told more than 360,000 people to evacuate their homes, city official Tadanobu Horiguchi said. Many sought shelter on the second or third floors of schools.
Among the seven dead were a 53-year-old firefighter, who fell into a flooded roadside ditch, and a 49-year-old man buried by mudslides, Horiguchi said.
Toyota Motor Corp. stopped production nationwide because of the downpour. Toyota and many of its parts makers are located in Nagoya, about 170 miles west of Tokyo, so work stoppages there affect operations in other areas.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. also stopped production at its two factories in Nagoya, company spokesman Isao Sakaibara said.
Torrential rains also cut power to bullet trains, forcing about 50,000 passengers to sleep overnight at railway stations or in stalled trains. Services resumed in the afternoon after a record interruption of more than 18 hours.
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