Japan’s Self Defense Force is working overtime on Monday, trying to clear mud and scour flooded regions to find missing people. At least 55 are dead in Southern and Eastern Japan following the massive Typhoon Hagibis. Over 100 are injured in Japan on Monday following the flooding, high winds and severe rainfall of the storm.
At least 37 rivers across six prefectures have been flooded, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism. In Hakone, in Kanagawa Prefecture, the city observed nearly 37 inches of rainfall in a single day.
Hagibis caused an absurd amount of damage across Southern Japan. Over 3,400 homes were flooded or destroyed as a result of the storm, and nearly 38,000 people have been displaced. Shelters in 17 different prefectures are at capacity taking care of victims of the storm.
“The major typhoon has caused immense damage far and wide in eastern Japan,” Yoshihide Suga, a government spokesperson, told reporters on Monday. When the storm made landfall on Saturday, it had wind speeds exceeding 90 MPH. The severe storm surge flooding and the heavy rainfall were the main concerns, however.
As homes flooded across the Eastern and Southern portions of the country, rescue helicopters circled overhead to try to pull stranded civilians from their homes. Many people were stranded in the second or third floors of buildings, while many others were ordered to evacuate ahead of floodwaters.
The storm has a very visible human cost in lives lost and homes destroyed. It also caused significant damage to the country’s infrastructure in affected regions. Bullet trains are sitting submerged in water and mud in Nagano in central Japan.
The storm also summoned up a tornado on Saturday over Ichibara City in Chiba Prefecture, resulting in the destruction of at least 12 houses and damaging at least another 70.
Roadways and vehicles have been buried beneath mudslides due to the severe flooding. In Gunma Prefecture, landslides swept away several homes and resulted in the deaths of four people. Elsewhere, over 14,000 homes have no running water and another 375,000 homes are without power.
