This archive report was first published on 13 October 2019.
October 12, 2019, marked the beginning of a long and difficult night for Japan as Typhoon Hagibis, the most powerful storm to strike the country in decades, made landfall.
Rescue services sprang into action, using helicopters to pluck stranded people from balconies and roofs, and inflatable boats to access residential streets turned into raging rivers.
At least 10 people were killed and 16 were missing as of Sunday morning, and hundreds of thousands were forced to abandon their homes.
Fourteen rivers flooded, with the public broadcaster NHK reporting that a levee burst on the Chikuma river in Nagano prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, flooding a wide area of Nagano city.
Photos from the disaster zone showed submerged homes, ruined buildings, and downed electrical cables, with residents being rescued from flooded residential areas and stranded fans taking shelter in a bowling alley.
Water reached the second story of some homes in Ashikaga, north of Tokyo, and houses were damaged by landslides in Sagamihara, near Tokyo.
