Asia-Pacific News

Typhoon death toll climbs to 30 in Japan, 56 missing

Sep 5, 2011, 13:09 GMT

Tokyo - After a slow-moving powerful typhoon dumped record rainfall in many areas of Japan over the weekend, the number of deaths rose to 30, with 56 people listed as missing, news reports said Monday.

Authorities urged some 9,300 households to evacuate in some areas of central and western Japan as the nation's meteorological agency warned of more mudslides and flooding, broadcaster NHK said.

Rainfall of 60 millimetres per hour was forecast for some parts of the northern island of Hokkaido through Tuesday, the agency said.

Of the 30 deaths, 18 were counted in the prefecture of Wakayama alone, with 34 missing, as Typhoon Talas hit the Kii Peninsula, south of Osaka, especially hard.

One person died and seven people were missing after three houses were destroyed by a mudslide in Tanabe in the prefecture while three were killed when their car was submerged in Hidakagawa, NHK said.

TV footage showed flooded cities, severed roads, swollen rivers and houses flattened by mudslides on the peninsula. Rescue efforts have been hindered by the conditions, local media reported.

Since Tuesday, more than 2,400 millimetres of rainfall - about three-fourths of the area's annual precipitation - had been dumped in Kamikitayama in Nara prefecture, NHK said.

The season's 12th typhoon weakened into an extratropical cyclone at 3 pm (0600 GMT), which was travelling northward at 30 kilometres per hour over the Sea of Japan, the agency said.

The typhoon made its way across western Japan Saturday through Sunday morning.