The Hindu : International : Deaths, destruction in Japan

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Friday, Oct 22, 2004

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International

Deaths, destruction in Japan

— AP

REELING UNDER FLOODS: Houses submerged after Typhoon Tokage unleashed flash floods in Toyooka, western Japan, on Thursday.

TOKYO, OCT. 21. Japan's deadliest storm in more than a decade unleashed flash floods that washed away entire hillsides, killing 55 persons and leaving at least 24 missing before it veered east into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday.

Rescue workers and Japanese troops worked around the clock, digging through mud and debris and combing flooded rivers and coastal waters to search for the missing, Japanese media reported. Authorities said the storm's toll was the highest since 1988.

"The death toll is likely to keep rising, as we take stock of the damage," a National Police Agency spokesman said.

Mayhem

Typhoon `Tokage' blasted across Japan on Wednesday before being downgraded to a tropical storm. Early on Thursday, the storm headed east to open seas, its fury spent.

Television footage showed powerful gusts uprooting huge trees, flash floods submerging cars to their windows and entire hillsides crumbling away in landslips across southern and central Japan. Delivery trucks, tipped over by winds, lay on their sides.

On Thursday, concrete frames, wood splinters and electrical appliances were all that was left of homes in Muroto in southwestern Kochi prefecture (State), where massive waves smashed through concrete tide-breaks and into beachside properties. In large areas of western and southern Japan, neighbourhoods and farmlands were still under water, many public schools remained closed and local train and air transport were disrupted.

Temporary shelters

Nationwide, more than 23,210 homes were flooded and hundreds of others ripped apart or buried, a Fire and Disaster Management Agency spokesman said. More than 13,000 persons across the country were staying at temporary shelters, officials said.

`Tokage,' the Japanese word for lizard, was the record eighth typhoon to hit Japan this year.

By Thursday, 55 persons were dead and 24 others still unaccounted for, the National Police Agency said. Another 269 were injured.

Workers in south western Okayama prefecture found the bodies of elderly people — a couple in their 80s and two others, aged 76 and 83 — who had been among the missing after a mudslip buried homes, a Government spokesman said.

Chain of typhoons

Several Japanese oil refiners were forced to halt sea deliveries from their refineries in western Japan due to heavy rain and strong winds, but refiners had sufficient stocks to cover emergencies such as typhoons and earthquakes. Earlier this month, Typhoon `Ma-on' killed six persons in Japan after swiping the country's Pacific coast. A week before that, Typhoon `Meari' killed 22.

Damage caused by storms and other natural disasters this year was estimated at 725.9 billion yen. — AP

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