Powerful Typhoon Wipha hits Japan, 14 dead
On Izu Oshima island, located about 120 km south of Tokyo, 13 people were confirmed dead as around 30 houses were completely destroyed by mudslides triggered by the storm.
Record rainfall of 122.5 mm per hour was registered on the island and the Metropolitan Police Department plans to dispatch a special rescue team to the island, said Japan's Kyodo News, adding the Tokyo Fire Department's hyper rescue team is being mobilized.
In Tokyo's Machida, a woman died after being swept away by a swollen river, said the report.
Many other people remain unaccounted for in the Kanto region in the centre of Japan's capital Tokyo, including two boys who were reportedly carried away by high waves in Ninomiya, Kanagawa prefecture, Kyodo quoted the National Police Agency as saying.
The
storm
also
led
to
suspension
of
local
transportation
as
several
Bullet
Train
services
on
the
Tohoku,
Yamagata,
Joetsu,
Nagano
and
Tokaido
Shinkansen
lines
were
cancelled,
while
193
domestic
flights
of
Japan
Airlines
and
211
domestic
and
international
flights
of
All
Nippon
Airways
were
scrapped.
Powerful typhoon Wipha hit the central and northeastern parts of Japan.
The Japanese government has set up a liaison office at the prime minister's office to gather typhoon-related information.
As of 11 a.m., Wipha, the 26th typhoon of the year, was moving north-northeast at a speed of around 75 km per hour, some 150 km east-southeast of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
The typhoon is expected to be downgraded to an extra-tropical cyclone Wednesday afternoon in the Pacific Ocean east of the Tohoku region, said the JMA.
IANS