Three Months' Worth of Rain in 12 Hours... 8 Dead as Heavy Downpours Hit Japan

[Anchor]

Record-breaking heavy rain battered Chiba Prefecture, Japan, yesterday (August 13). Three times the average monthly precipitation poured down in just 12 hours. The sudden downpours left 8 people dead and stranded thousands at airports and subway stations.

Here is our report from Tokyo, coming from correspondent Mun Junmo.

[Reporter]

Swollen rainwater rushes violently along the roads.

Vehicles submerged up to their wheels have stalled everywhere.

People try to push a car from behind, but it refuses to budge.

[Resident: "It's impossible, impossible. Stop, just stop."] समझा

Water floods even inside a bus stranded in the middle of the road, leaving people helpless.

The sudden downpour forced commuters to give up on returning home.

[Office Worker: "I can't risk driving back, so I'm just going to wait it out at the office."]

From yesterday afternoon through dawn, the highest-level heavy rain special warnings were issued for over 20 local municipalities within Chiba Prefecture.

In particular, Chiba City was pummeled with 348 mm of rain in just 12 hours, roughly three times the average total precipitation for the entire month of August.

It was the highest figure recorded since statistics began.

Evacuation orders were issued for 400,000 people, and approximately 45,000 households suffered power outages.

A total of 8 people lost their lives, including 3 who were unable to escape their vehicles due to flooded roads.

Train and bus operations experienced disruptions, and about 7,000 people spent the night at Narita International Airport.

[Passenger (at 8:00 AM): "I've been here (at the airport) for about 12 hours. They gave us sleeping bags and water."]

At the Chiba Prefectural Government office, 1,800 stranded commuters also spent a sleepless night.

[Office Worker: "It's tough because I couldn't sleep. There were too many people inside, so it was impossible to sleep."]

Even the Self-Defense Forces were mobilized to transport 4,000 people stranded in subways onto large buses and move them to shelters.

In some areas such as Mobara City in eastern Chiba, entire villages remained submerged like giant lakes until this afternoon.

This record-breaking torrential rain occurred because warm, moist air pushed up by a high-pressure system to the north met cold air lingering like a dome over the ground, triggering a continuous formation of rain clouds.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has urged caution, warning that strong rains of over 50 mm per hour could persist tonight.

(Video reported by Han Chul-min and Moon Hyun-jin | Video edited by Kim Byung-jik | Design by Kim Ye-ji)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.