At least six dead as Typhoon Roke hits Japan

[News_Editor]

At least six dead as Typhoon Roke hits Japan

2011-09-22 07:21:45 GMT+7 (ICT)

TOKYO (BNO NEWS) -- At least six people have been killed after Typhoon Roke hit the Japanese coast on Wednesday, one day after over a million people were urged to the evacuate central and western regions of the country, officials said.

Typhoon Roke touched land near Hamamatsu in Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture at around 2 p.m. local time, causing heavy rainfall and strong winds in several areas, including western and northern Japan, the Kyodo news agency reported.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said Roke was expected to cross the archipelago as it passed through the Tokyo metropolitan area during the evening. Officials said in the afternoon that it was moving northeast toward the Tohoku region near the city of Kakegawa at a speed of 45 kilometers (27.9 miles) per hour with winds of up to 216 kilometers (134.2 miles) per hour.

Six people were confirmed dead in the prefectures of Aichi, Ehime, Saga, Nagasaki and Kumamoto.

The city of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture had previously issued an evacuation advisory to more than one million people in 460,000 households due to the rising water levels of the Tenpaku and Shonai rivers. In Gifu and Hyogo prefectures, an evacuation advisory covered about 110,000 people in 40,000 households.

In the southern Miyazaki Prefecture in Kyushu, where 400 millimeters (15.7 inches) of rain has fallen over the past 24 hours, nearly 40,000 people were advised to leave. Authorities warned of mudslides in areas where volcanic ash from a nearby mountain has accumulated after recent eruptions. Areas in central and western Japan had hourly rainfall between 30 and 40 millimeters (1.57 inches) on Tuesday evening.

Roke, the fifteenth typhoon of the season, has also widely disrupted the country's transportation network, as more than 300 domestic flights have been cancelled. In addition, East Japan Railway Co. announced the suspension of the Tokaido Shinkansen Line between Tokyo and Osaka, and Yamagata Shinkansen Line services between Shinjo and Fukushima stations. The Hokuriku Expressway was also closed down.

Heavy rainfall is forecast to continue, and Typhoon Roke is expected to reach Fukushima Prefecture, which was hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that brought the ongoing nuclear crisis. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was severely damaged, as the disaster disabled the cooling systems of the plant, and radioactive elements leaked into the sea, which were later found in water, air and food products in some parts of Japan.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima Daiichi plant, however, said the expected rainfall would not cause the stored contaminated water with radioactive material to escape the plant. According to the company, there was still space to hold rainwater. Nonetheless, sandbags were piled up around the plant to avoid water from entering.

Earlier this month, Typhoon Talas slammed central and western Japan, leaving around 100 people dead or missing. In July, the City University of Hong Kong predicted a total number of 31 tropical cyclones to form in the western North Pacific, of which 27 would become tropical storms and 17 which would further grow into a typhoon.

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