TOKYO, Japan - Heatstroke has killed two people in Japan, officials said Wednesday, as nearly half a million homes struggled with electricity outages after a powerful typhoon battered Tokyo and the surrounding area.
A 93-year-old woman and a 65-year-old man were found unconscious at their respective homes on Tuesday and were later confirmed dead by doctors, an official from Chiba prefecture east of Tokyo told AFP.
At least 48 other people were sent to hospital for symptoms of heatstroke Tuesday, she said, as the mercury hit above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in areas where electricity is still out after Typhoon Faxai hit on Monday.
By Wednesday morning, some 456,000 households were still without power, Tokyo Electric Co. (TEPCO) said in a statement.
"Please take refuge in cool places and drink water to avoid heatstroke," TEPCO said, apologizing to customers for the outage.
A local official said 84,000 households were also without water on Tuesday because several water purification plants had no power, but "water supply is recovering gradually" on Wednesday as electricity is restored.
With help from the military, officials dispatched water tanker trucks to the affected areas, she said.
Typhoon Faxai powered into the Tokyo region in the early hours of Monday warning, packing record winds that prompted warnings for tens of thousands of people to leave their homes.
The storm killed two people, though it caused relatively little damage in Tokyo beyond disrupting the morning commute.
In Chiba it brought down power lines, and it left 17,000 passengers stranded at Narita airport outside the capital after trains running to and from the transport hub were suspended.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK, United States - New York Mayor and 2020 presidential candidate Bill de Blasio found himself under fire Sunday -- notably from the state's governor -- for being out of town when a major blackout hit the city because he was campaigning in Iowa.
The hours-long blackout on Saturday night, which plunged Times Square into darkness and brought subways to a halt, affected more than 70,000 customers on Manhattan's West Side.
The power returned gradually from around 10:00 pm (0200 GMT Sunday), with full service restored at about midnight. The cause is still under investigation.
De Blasio had planned to spend the night in Iowa, and initially told CNN he needed more information before he could decide whether or not to rush home. That hesitation earned him quick scorn on the internet and beyond.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat like De Blasio, pulled no punches when he himself appeared on CNN.
"Mayors are important and situations like this come up and you have to be on site," Cuomo said late Saturday.
Despite their party affiliation, there is no love lost between the pair, and they are often at odds politically.
Cuomo arrived in the city as the blackout was still ongoing and was giving a press conference as the lights started to come back on.
De Blasio eventually returned home late Saturday and took to the airwaves on Sunday to defend himself.
"The important thing is to have the hand on the wheel and make sure things are moving effectively and communicate to people," he told CNN.
"When you're a mayor, or a governor, you're going to travel for a variety of reasons."
But Cuomo said during his eight years in office, "I can count the number of times I leave the state basically on my fingers."
"I think it's important to be in a place where you can always respond but everybody makes their own political judgment," he added.
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source: news.abs-cbn.com
LOS ANGELES - A blackout forced evacuations at a number of Disneyland attractions in California on Wednesday, which was crowded on a day many were off for year-end holidays.
Visitors at "Toontown" and "Fantasyland" attractions were plunged into darkness, as was the monorail that runs through the park, local media said.
It was not immediately clear how long it might take to restore power fully at one of California's most popular attractions.
The park was near full, during the busy Christmas vacation season.
"We had an issue with one of our transformers. So we lost power to certain areas of Disneyland park earlier today," said Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown.
"Power has been restored to Toontown and we still have some areas of the park that are without power.
"The monorail is one of the attractions that are down ...(but) the majority of the park is operating," she added.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
