Tokyo – A powerful typhoon was bearing down on Japan’s tsunami-ravaged northeastern coast Wednesday, approaching a nuclear power plant crippled in that disaster and prompting calls for the evacuation of more than a million people.
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Even before its arrival Typhoon Roke turned deadly, with local media and police reporting five people killed or missing after being swept away by rivers swollen with rain.
The storm, packing winds of up to 134 mph (216 kph), was expected to make landfall along Japan’s southeast coast around midday and then cut a path northeast through Tokyo and into the northeastern Tohoku region, which was devastated by the March 11 tsunami and earthquake.
Also in the path of the storm is the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which started spewing radiation after it was sent into meltdown by the tsunami.
Takeo Iwamoto, spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that operates the plant, said the cooling system for the reactors, crucial to keeping them under control, will not be endangered by the typhoon.
He said some construction work around the plant was canceled and utmost efforts were under way to prevent leaks of radioactive water and other material from the typhoon.
Japanese media reports said more than a million people have been ordered or advised to evacuate across the country as their homes may be flooded or buried in mudslides triggered by the typhoon. The numbers varied, as there is no nationwide tally, and the situation has been flexible. The Mainichi nationwide newspaper reported 1.4 million people were issued evacuation warnings, while the Yomiuri newspaper put the number at 1.2 million.
The city of Nagoya temporarily called off an evacuation warning for 880,000 people when swelling in a major river subsided, but officials said the warning was likely to be reissued as the storm neared.
Heavy rains caused floods and road damage in dozens of locations in Nagoya and several other cities, the Aichi prefectural (state) government said.
Television footage showed people wading through water up to their knees in Nagoya, 170 miles (270 kilometers) west of Tokyo. In parts of the city near swollen rivers, rescue workers helped residents evacuate in rubber boats.
Police in nearby Gifu prefecture said a 9-year-old boy and an 84-year-old man were missing after apparently falling into swollen rivers.
Toyota Motor Corp., Japan’s No. 1 automaker, which is headquartered in Toyota city in Aichi, canceled production for later in the day as a precaution.
More than 200 domestic flights were canceled and some bullet train services were suspended, according to the Kyodo News service.
The storm was bringing rain and wind to the Tokyo area, and commuters were being warned to go home early before the storm hits the capital Wednesday afternoon.
A typhoon that slammed Japan earlier this month left about 90 people dead or missing.
Why are they being hit by this if they let a bucher go?
it looks like g -o- d pulled the plug on japan to punish for the handling of the Innocent boys.
japan will disappear slowly from this planet for their sins against the 3 boys they held with great pain.
Because they still have the other Bucher?
To #1 u r questioning the 1 above?? I’m gonna say a statement but-let the 3rd buchir go otherwise the typhoon might just slice the roof off that jail
Whoever has a doubt that this is not because of the imprisonment of three heiliga nefoshos that were denied being able to serve Almighty for so long, are not with the program. No I’m not G-d but this is Alef Bais.
I can’t believe the small-minded hate coming from most of the comments above. Three bachurs were arrested for carrying drugs into the country — two of whom are already back in Israel — and you think that’s why G-d would kill hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, children and babies? Do you realize what kind of message you’re sending to the world about our Torah? One comment above actually claimed that all the billions of non-Jews in the world count for nothing — they’re like manure. For every Chazal you can give that seemingly casts the nations of the world in a negative light, I can give you another that speaks in more positive terms, so why do some of us only focus on the negative? And if in your twisted view Japan deserved this because of the arrest of three Jews for drug-smuggling, then why doesn’t a natural disaster ten times worse strike Iran? Why wasn’t Germany wiped off the face of the earth?
#12 ,
Have you ever learned Nach?!
The reason that the Torah feels that way about the nations is because they had the chance for enlightenment and turned it down! We gave them civility through Torah concepts and they didn’t accept them! These same people could have saved the Jews in WWII but didn’t.
The idea of the Torah is for all gentiles to become enlightened, as it says in Yishayah 2:3, also look at the Malbim on Yishayah 42:2, that in the future, we will not be seperate from the goyim, because they’ll accept the truth, but the Navi was very explicit many times that the nations will be severely punished, as it says, also in Yishayah, 41:5, look at the Metz. Dovid about island nations that hold Jewish prisoners.
Also, for you to imagine up maamarei chazal that are pro-goyim is an insult to the Torah because they don’t exist.
I ask Vusizneias to repost my response, #6