Areas in Tokyo equivalent to a third of its central 23 wards could be inundated to a maximum depth of 10 meters by storm surges caused by a powerful typhoon, the Tokyo metropolitan government said Friday.
The government estimates areas as wide as 212 square kilometers -- mainly low-lying districts in the eastern part of the capital -- could be flooded if a typhoon with a central pressure of 910 hectopascals hits the city.
Among wards in eastern Tokyo, 99 percent of Sumida Ward, 98 percent of Katsushika Ward, and 91 percent of Edogawa Ward may be inundated, while the flooding could continue more than a week around those areas along the Arakawa River as levees may break, according to the estimate.
JR Shinagawa and Shimbashi stations could be flooded to a depth of 1 meter, while business districts in the coastal areas of Minato and Chuo wards may be left in a depth of about 50 centimeters.
The estimate is based on a scenario that a major typhoon, as powerful as one that hit western Japan in 1934 leaving 3,036 people dead or missing, passes through a course that would raise the tidal level at the Port of Tokyo to a high level.
Tokyo is the second local government in Japan to release such an estimate after Fukuoka Prefecture.
