Via The Mainichi: Typhoon Hagibis with heaviest rain in years hits Tokyo, killing 2. Excerpt:
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A massive typhoon, bringing potentially the heaviest downpours in six decades, lashed the Tokyo metropolitan area on Saturday, killing at least two people and injuring many others, while landslides occurred and rivers overflowed.
Japan's weather agency issued an unprecedented emergency warning over Typhoon Hagibis for Tokyo and nearby regions, saying heavy rain "with a level of intensity observed only once every few decades" was likely.
Over 6 million people across Japan's main island of Honshu were advised to evacuate, with train operators suspending most services and airports shut down in the metropolitan and surrounding areas.
Typhoon Hagibis, meaning "swift" in the Philippine language Tagalog, could dump amounts of rain not seen since a deadly typhoon in 1958, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
It is the first time the agency has issued the warning, the highest on a one-to-five scale, for Tokyo and the prefectures of Gunma, Saitama, Kanagawa, Yamanashi, Nagano, Shizuoka, Niigata and Fukushima.
The agency also expanded the coverage of the heavy rain warning to three other prefectures -- Miyagi, Ibaraki and Tochigi.
Japanese authorities warned that the typhoon is causing water levels in a number of rivers to rise dangerously and released water from some dams.
Over 1,000 millimeters of rain was observed in Hakone, a popular hot spring resort, located about 80 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, since Thursday, according to the agency.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stayed on alert at his official residence and a team of senior officials gathered up-to-date information at an adjacent office.
As of 11 p.m., about 10 rivers, including Tama in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward and Chikuma in Nagano Prefecture, had overflowed, according to local governments.
Live updates on Hagibis are available at The Japan Times.
