Typhoon Saomai joined forces with an autumnal rain front to cause the worst downpours in at least a century in central Japan on Monday and Tuesday, causing at least five deaths and leaving three people missing while disrupting road and rail traffic.
Some 180,000 families, or about 400,000 people, in Aichi, Gifu and Mie prefectures were ordered or advised to evacuate, local officials said. At least 36 people were injured in rain-related accidents, according to police.
The level of the Shonai River, running through Nagoya's Nakagawa Ward, rose and broke through an embankment, while 100 meters of flood defenses on the Shin River, which runs parallel to the Shonai in Nishi Ward, also collapsed.