VANCOUVER - Canada's national rugby team was scheduled to play Namibia Sunday in its final match of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Then, typhoon Hagibis struck.
The storm cancelled three games in the tournament, but those were far from the most significant casualties. As many as 33 people died and countless more faced flooding and wind damage from the powerful tropical cyclone.
The cancellation of Canada's final Pool B match means the team will finish the world cup winless for the second straight tournament. Coach Kingsley Jones told the Canadian Press his team was disappointed not to be able to play, given that the opponent represented the team's best chance for a win in a group that included traditional powers New Zealand, South Africa and (to a lesser extent) Italy.
Rees told CTV News Vancouver Island the team had planned to return home Monday, the day after the Namibia match."The fact that the game was cancelled was really devastating news, to be honest," said Rugby Canada spokesperson Gareth Rees.
With no game to play and a mess around them in Kamaishi left by the typhoon, about 15 Canada players and staff grabbed shovels and brooms to sweep mud and debris off roads, and even from inside residents' homes.
"We had nothing to do on that last day, so we reached out and saw if there was anything we could do to help," Rees said. "It turned out to be a really incredible experience in the end."
The Canadian team's efforts caught the attention of world cup organizers, who tweeted a video of the players' efforts.
“In times like this there are an awful lot more important things than rugby, and when we got here we saw people's houses absolutely destroyed, water (rising) up the walls,” Canada fly half Peter Nelson told the Canadian Press. “We're just trying our very small part to help them in any way we can.”
Lock Josh Larsen, a native of Parksville, B.C., added: “We felt for the people of Kamaishi. (We're) happy to help.”
The Kamaishi locals are no strangers to nature's raw power.
A port town on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, Kamaishi was hit hard in 2011 by an earthquake and ensuing tsunami. World Rugby said 30 per cent of homes were either damaged or destroyed, 60 per cent of businesses were completely inundated and 98 per cent of the local fishing fleet was wiped out.
With files from the Canadian Press and the Associated Press

Typhoon Hagibis: 77-year-old woman falls from helicopter during rescue as Japan hit by strongest storm in 60 years

Death toll rises to at least 35 as 20 people still missing and dozens more injured

An elderly woman has died after falling from a rescue helicopter as Japan was hit by the strongest storm in six decades.
The 77-year-old fell about 130 feet to the ground after she was accidentally dropped during an airlift on Sunday, public broadcaster NHK said.
At least 35 people have so far been killed by Typhoon Hagibis, which has brought record levels of rain and left some 425,000 homes without power.
Another 20 people are missing and dozens more injured, Kyodo News has reported, based on information provided by rescuers and other authorities.
The transport ministry has also revealed that a Panama-registered cargo ship has been found sunk in waters near Tokyo after authorities lost contact with it on Saturday.

Typhoon Hagibis - in pictures

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Typhoon Hagibis - Saturday 12 OctoberThe Yomiuri newspaper has reported at least five of the crew’s 12 members have died and four people have been rescued.
About 360 people were left stranded after an embankment of the Chikuma River in Nagano collapsed.
Rescue efforts have been complicated as ten rivers in central and northeastern Japan burst their banks and dozens of others overflowed, the Japanese government said.
Evacuation centres filled up with residents after Hagibis, which means “speed” in the Philippine language of Tagalog, made landfall on Saturday evening.


Rie Hasegawa, a woman in her 30s, told Reuters she never imagined her landlocked town would face a water-related disaster.
“The force of the water was incredible. It was dark, frightening, and I thought this might be the end,” she said.
Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, has convened an emergency meeting of ministers and set up a task force to deal with damage from the storm.
“The government will do everything in its power to cooperate with relevant agencies and operators working to restore services as soon as possible,” he said.
The full extent of the damage has not yet emerged as many areas remained underwater on Sunday, public broadcaster NHK said.
Tokyo Electric Power Co has reported irregular readings from sensors monitoring water overnight in its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was crippled by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Despite the typhoon, a Rugby World Cup match between Japan and Scotland went ahead today, in which host country Japan progressed to the quarter finals.
However, a match between Namibia and Canada in Kamaishi was cancelled.
Just last month, another strong storm, Typhoon Faxai, destroyed or damaged 30,000 houses in Chiba, east of Tokyo, and caused extensive power outages.

Agencies contributed to this report