at least 7 dead in Japan, relief on the war foot

Japanese soldiers were busy Sunday to help the people trapped by the many floods caused by the powerful typhoon Hagibis, which killed at least seven people, makes 17 disappeared and upset the organization of the rugby world cup and a grand prix of Formula 1.

Submerged houses, landslides, raging streams: the unprecedented storm of rain has wreaked havoc across central and eastern Japan in the night from Saturday to Sunday.

Significant floods were reported in the central Nagano region, where a dike dropped, discharging the waters of the Chikuma River into a residential area whose homes were flooded to the first floor.

Perched on their balconies, residents in distress waved towels to the helicopters on the NHK public television channel and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, while a muddy stream rumbled around.

"During the night, we issued evacuation recommendations to 427 households, including 1,417 individuals," Yasuhiro Yamaguchi, a relief officer in the city of Nagano, told AFP.

"We do not know exactly how many of them are really affected," he added, adding that water continued to rise in the living quarters, although the river level did not rise any more. .

Aerial images showed a row of high-speed Shinkansen trains submerged by muddy water in a Nagano depot.

Some 7.3 million Japanese received evacuation instructions on Saturday after record rainfall. Tens of thousands of people followed these instructions, which are not mandatory. They were accommodated in gymnasiums or multi-purpose halls with emergency food, water and blankets.

The "unprecedented" intensity of rainfall, according to the JMA, prompted it to issue its maximum rainfall alert level, which is reserved for foreseeable disaster situations.

Hagibis had touched down Saturday shortly before 7:00 pm (10:00 GMT) and reached the Japanese capital around 9:00 pm, accompanied by wind gusts of up to nearly 200 km / h, according to the Agency.

– Seventeen missing –

Sunday morning, the sky of the capital, black of rain the day before, was limpid, a light breeze blew and the heat of the Tokyo Autumns regained its rights.

By Saturday morning, the fringes of Hagibis had died in the Chiba area (eastern suburbs of Tokyo), a man found in a van overturned, according to firefighters.

In the city of Kawasaki, near Tokyo, a sexagenarian was found dead in his house drowned under several meters of water.

Several landslides were reported, particularly in the Gunma area (north of Tokyo) where two people died, according to local authorities, a sexagenarian and a man whose age could not be specified.

A woman was found in a state of "cardio-respiratory arrest" – a term often used in Japan before the confirmation of death by a doctor – after being rescued by the help of her house buried by a landslide in Samigahara, south West of Tokyo, according to Japanese media.

Another woman was found in a cardiopulmonary arrest in a ditch in the Tochigi region (center) and the body of a 25-year-old city employee who was returning from work was discovered near his water-invaded vehicle, officials said. local.

The NHK counted nearly 100 wounded and the disappearance of 17 people.

Several streams emerged from their beds on Saturday, including the Tama River west of Tokyo, which borders densely populated areas.

The authorities also partially released water from several dams that threatened to overflow, which, however, raised fears of downstream flooding.

– Rubgy: a third match canceled –

The storm also disrupted the organization of two sports competitions held in Japan: the Suzuka Formula 1 Grand Prix qualifiers (center) were postponed to Sunday morning, while two matches of the Rugby World Cup were to be held on Saturday ( France-England and New Zealand-Italy) were canceled on Thursday.

World Cup officials announced Sunday the cancellation of a third match, Namibia-Canada, scheduled to Kamaishi (north). A heartbreaker for this municipality almost scratched the map by the tsunami of 2011 and who saw in this meeting a symbol of his resurrection.

Hagibis also risked compromising Scotland's meeting with Japan on Sunday, decisive for Scotland. The organizers had to make their decision on Sunday morning.

The typhoon has also paralyzed transport in the greater Tokyo area, this weekend extended by a holiday Monday: air, rail and metro lines were suspended Saturday.

Japan is hit by twenty typhoons each year. Before Hagibis, Faxai had killed at least two people in early September and caused extensive damage to Chiba.

bur-nf-hih-uh / etb / rock