At least five people have died in eastern Japan after torrential rain triggered flooding, landslide warnings and widespread transport disruptions, leaving thousands stranded at Narita International Airport.
The heavy rain swept through Chiba late Thursday, prompting authorities to issue the highest-level warning for the region for the first time. Power outages were also reported across the prefecture.
At least 26,000 households in Chiba were without electricity, according to the prefecture’s disaster management office, while more than 80 homes were flooded in cities including Ichikawa, Kashiwa and Sakura. Water also seeped into nearly 90 other homes.
In rural parts of Chiba, more than a dozen vehicles were abandoned on flooded roads.
At a disaster management meeting on Friday afternoon, a Chiba official confirmed five deaths. Those killed included a man believed to be in his 60s or 70s who was found in a flooded road and a 66-year-old woman who was trapped in a submerged vehicle.
Other fatalities included a man of unknown age who was found collapsed on a street and another person whose age and gender had not been determined.
Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported that the death toll could rise to eight.
The severe weather also caused major disruption at Narita International Airport, where around 6,000 passengers were stranded overnight after train services connecting the airport were suspended.
Passengers slept across the terminals, with sleeping bags distributed as long queues formed at check-in counters.
A British traveller identified as Philip told AFP that his journey to the airport took nine hours, including a taxi ride.
With a sleeping bag in hand, he said he had “just been trying to get some sleep and watching Netflix”.
“Just get on with it, really. Nothing else you can do,” he said.
Another stranded traveller told NHK, “I never thought I’d spend the night at the airport, but it is what it is and we are learning.”
“We’re never going to forget this trip,” the traveller added.
Hundreds of other passengers were stranded at Chiba station, while hundreds more spent the night in shelters across the prefecture.
Social media users reported that airport staff provided stranded passengers with water, food and sleeping bags.
The Japan Meteorological Agency had warned Thursday that the rainfall was developing into an “unprecedented level of heavy rain”.
The highest-level warnings issued for Chiba were downgraded to level four by Friday morning, but authorities continued to deal with the effects of the flooding and transport disruptions.
Scientists have warned that human-driven climate change is contributing to more frequent, prolonged and intense extreme weather events.
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