Typhoon Hagibis hits Japan violently: at least 26 dead, 110,000 rescuers mobilized

At least 26 people were killed, according to Japanese media, by the devastating typhoon Hagibis while 110,000 rescuers were preparing Sunday night to spend the night to help the people trapped by the many floods.

Submerged houses, landslides, furying streams: the record-heavy rainstorm has wreaked havoc across central and eastern Japan on Saturday night. Residents were buried in landslides, drowned in their homes or in their water-washed vehicles, including a child whose body was found in a river.

On Sunday night, the NHK public broadcaster and the Kyodo news agency both reported 26 deaths and at least 18 were missing. The government counted 14 dead, 11 missing and 187 wounded. Significant flooding still affected the central Nagano region, where a dike dropped, spilling the waters of the Chikuma River into a residential area whose homes were flooded to the first floor.

"Currently 110,000 police, firefighters, coastguards and Self-Defense Forces are doing their best in search and rescue operations and this should continue all night", said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Among them, 31,000 soldiers equipped with 130 aircraft. Images of the NHK showed one of their helicopters hauling residents from the rooftops in the Nagano area. A septuagenarian, who was trying to hoist in a helicopter in Iwaki in the Fukushima region (north-west), made a fatal fall of 40 meters, told AFP a spokesman for the Tokyo Fire Department.

In Kawagoe (north-west of Tokyo), rescuers were evacuating elderly people in wheelchairs, some still wheelchair-bound, whose retirement home was surrounded by floods, AFP reported.

Some four million people were still affected by evacuation instructions late Sunday afternoon. More than 135,000 had followed these non-binding notices and were in shelters.

The "unprecedented" intensity of rainfall according to the Japanese Weather Agency (JMA) had pushed it to issue its maximum rainfall alert level, 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.

"The water is rising higher than the level of my head"

A Panamanian-flagged cargo ship sank Saturday night in Tokyo Bay, killing two of the crew. Four other crewmembers were saved, but six more were still wanted.

More than 111,000 households were also still without electricity Sunday at 18:00 in the country, according to the electricity companies.

"In the house, the water rose higher than the level of my head, which turned all the furniture in. It's like in a washing machine now.", told AFP Hajime Tokuda, an employee in finance living in Kawasaki (west of Tokyo). He took refuge with relatives whose home was also flooded. The mishap ended well: on the lifeguard boat.

In Higashi Matsuyama, in the Saitama region (northwest of Tokyo), rice and flower growers were counting their losses on Sunday as water flooded warehouses full of fresh crops. "Never have we experienced such a flood in these surroundings", explained a farmer who did not want to give his name.

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.

Rubgy: Japan-Scotland maintained

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. The meeting between Scotland and Japan Sunday, decisive for Scotland but long threatened, was finally maintained.

The typhoon also paralyzed transport in the greater Tokyo area, this weekend extended by a holiday Monday: rail connections resumed Sunday and flights serving Tokyo were only partially restored.

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.