Heavy rain lashed the Kanto area early Monday, closing schools and forcing the cancellation of some train operations while prompting the highest-level landslide warning for a village on one of Tokyo’s southern islands.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a Level 5 emergency warning for landslides for?the villages of Niijima and Toshima and the town of Oshima on the Izu Islands, which are under the jurisdiction of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.?The warning is the highest level on the agency’s scale of 1 to 5.
The heavy rains also inundated areas of the capital farther north, as well as Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures. The agency is urging people to be on high alert for landslides, rising river levels and floods in some low-lying areas.
Multiple areas of Tokyo had record-breaking levels of rain, with Izu Oshima island reaching?581.5 millimeters of rain in the 24 hours leading up to 2:30 p.m. on Monday, according to the JMA.
Heavy rainfall was also recorded across the Tokyo metropolitan area through Monday morning, with some recording over 200 mm over the same 24-hour period.
A Level 4 warning for heavy rain was issued for the city of Chiba early Monday. The city’s Chuo Ward received 148 mm in the 24 hours to 4:20 p.m.
Two vehicles were found submerged in an underpass in the city of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, Monday morning after it flooded due to heavy rain, according to reports by broadcaster TBS. A woman in her 60s was pulled out from one of the vehicles and transported to a hospital in the city where she was pronounced dead. The person in the other vehicle was able to escape unharmed.
According to the education ministry, around 3,000 public elementary and middle schools across the nation have canceled classes due to the impact of the rain.
Commuters were also affected, with East Japan Railway’s Yamanote, Chuo and Sobu lines all running with 20% to 30% fewer trains on Monday.
Several metropolitan and national routes in western Tokyo that were closed Sunday morning due to heavy rainfall were reopened at 10 a.m. on Monday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said.
Shinkansen services also experienced delays. The Yamagata Shinkansen temporarily suspended services early Monday afternoon, before resuming some later in the day.
The storm front is forecast to continue moving north, with Tropical Depression Krovanh expected to send warm, damp air toward it. As of 9:00 a.m. on Monday, Krovanh was moving slowly north-northeast over waters off the island of Minamidaito’s coast in Okinawa Prefecture, according to the JMA.
The agency has urged those in areas affected by the heavy rain to be on alert for landslides until late Monday night. In particular, a linear band could form in the Kanto region and the Izu islands, which would rapidly increase the risk of heavy rain disasters.
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