Heavy Rain in Japan: Woman Dies in Flooded Car

Heavy rain has left parts of Japan facing flooding and the threat of landslides. In Iwaki, in northeastern Fukushima prefecture, a woman died after her car flooded in an underpass, broadcaster NHK reported.

Authorities later lifted an evacuation advisory for the city, as well as advisories covering parts of Ibaraki and Kanagawa prefectures. Officials in Hirono, Fukushima, also ended an evacuation advisory for the municipality’s 4,665 residents, a spokesman told dpa.

The storm’s effects reached the Tokyo metropolitan area, where the remnants of a typhoon and a severe weather front brought dangerous conditions. Japan’s national weather agency issued its second-highest warning for landslides in parts of Chiba and Saitama, Tokyo’s neighboring prefectures, and in parts of Fukushima.

The agency forecast more heavy rain across broad areas along Japan’s Pacific coast, prompting the government to establish a crisis team. Heavy rainfall has repeatedly caused alarm in Japan in recent weeks. Days earlier, authorities had temporarily urged 400,000 people in central Fukui prefecture to seek safety because of landslide risks. Homes and roads were flooded before those instructions were lifted.