Record rain batters Chiba, leaves four dead and thousands stranded

Record rainfall flooded Chiba east of Tokyo, killing four people and stranding thousands overnight. More rain is forecast, raising fears of further disruption, evacuations and power cuts.Record-breaking rain battered areas east of Tokyo overnight, flooding roads and dozens of homes, stranding thousands of people, causing power cuts and leaving at least four people dead, with one person missing.Japan's weather agency lowered its highest heavy rain warning for more than a dozen municipalities in Chiba prefecture after the rain eased on Friday morning, but said more rain was expected later in the day.Photos and television footage after daybreak showed extensive damage, with homes, cars and parts of railway tracks under muddy water. In Chiba City, 11.5 centimetres of rain fell in just one hour, while Sakura recorded 9.7 centimetres in an hour, both all-time highs.The Ground Self Defence Force said it sent buses to take about 4,000 stranded people from Soga train station, where they had spent the night. The route also serves Tokyo Disney, though the theme park reported no damage. Thousands of other people were stranded at Narita airport as train services out of the area were suspended. Hundreds also took shelter overnight at the Chiba prefectural government building.Chiba prefecture said four people were found dead and another person was missing. The dead included a man found floating on a flooded road in Ichikawa city and a woman who had been trapped in a flooded car in Sakura city. Another person pulled from a flooded car in Kashiwa city was presumed dead. Officials said more than 80 homes were flooded and nearly 230,000 residents across the prefecture were advised to move to shelters. The heavy rain and flooding also cut power to about 23,000 homes on Friday morning, down from 68,000 earlier, according to TEPCO Power Grid.JMA forecast official Takuya Hosomi said at a televised emergency news conference that unprecedented levels of rainfall had been recorded. Even as the rain weakened for a time, authorities warned that more was expected later on Friday after a night of deadly flooding, large-scale disruption and damage across Chiba prefecture.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Aug 14, 2026 08:38 IST