Two people have been confirmed dead and two others were found “without vital signs” after Typhoon Nanmadol hit Japan over the weekend, a government spokesman said on Tuesday (September 20).
The storm system made landfall Sunday evening in the southwestern city of Kagoshima and dumped heavy rains in the Kyushu region before moving along the west coast.
People share an umbrella against strong wind and rain as they walk on a bridge on September 20, 2022 in Kawasaki, near Tokyo. (AP/Eugene Hoshiko)
On Tuesday morning, it was downgraded to an extratropical cyclone as it crossed the northeast coast and headed out to sea.
The storm toppled trees, shattered windows and dumped a month of rain in 24 hours on parts of Miyazaki Prefecture, where both fatalities were confirmed.
Government spokesman Hirozaku Matsuno said two more people were found “without vital signs”, a term often used in Japan before a death is officially certified by a coroner.
He added that authorities were also looking for a missing person.
At least 114 people were injured, 14 of them seriously.
As of Tuesday morning, around 140,000 homes were still without power across the country, mostly in Kyushu.
On the island of Tanegashima, south of the island of Kyushu, a wall was damaged in a space center of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, announced the Ministry of Economy and Industry. The extent of damage to the building used for rocket assembly was being assessed.
Two deaths were reported Monday in Miyazaki Prefecture on Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu as the storm grew stronger, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. One was a man found in a sunken car on a flooded farm in Miyakonojo town, and another was found under a landslide in Mimata.
Most transport returned to normal on Tuesday when commuters returned to work after a three-day weekend. Bullet trains and most ground transportation resumed operations, but dozens of flights were grounded in northeast Japan.
Japan is currently in its typhoon season and faces around 20 such storms a year.
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Scientists say climate change is increasing the severity of storms and making extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts and flash floods more frequent and intense.
Category: Japan
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