Typhoon takes a high toll in Japan

VIOLENT: WIND GUSTS OF UP TO 216KM/H RECORDED More than seven million given evacuation orders at storm’s height.

More than 20 people were killed by powerful typhoon Hagibis, local media reported yesterday, a day after the ferocious storm slammed into Japan, unleashing unprecedented rain and catastrophic flooding.

More than 100 000 rescuers, including 31 000 troops, worked into the night to reach people trapped after torrential rain caused landslides and rivers burst their banks.

The storm moved off land yesterday morning, and while it largely spared the capital, it left a trail of destruction in surrounding regions.

The government put the death toll at 14, with 11 people missing, but national broadcaster NHK reported 23 people had been killed with local media reporting 15 still unaccounted for.

Rivers burst their banks at nearly a dozen locations, including in central Japan’s Nagano, where a levee breach sent water from the Chikuma river gushing into residential neighbourhoods, flooding homes up to the second floor.

Military and fire department helicopters winched survivors from roofs and balconies in several locations.

In Iwaki city, Fukushima, a rescue went tragically awry when a woman died after falling while she was being winched to safety.

Elsewhere, rescue workers carried out an hours-long boat operation to evacuate hundreds of people from a retirement home in Kawagoe, northwest of Tokyo, which was flooded up to its top floor.

Hagibis smashed into the main Japanese island of Honshu on Saturday night as one of the most violent typhoons in recent years, with wind gusts of up to 216km/h.

The storm claimed its first victim even before making landfall, when high winds flipped a vehicle, killing its driver.

Landslides and flooding claimed more lives overnight, and the toll climbed higher after sunrise, as the scale of the devastation became clear.

More than 110 000 homes were still without power by last night, with others experiencing water outages.

At the storm’s peak, more than seven million people were placed under noncompulsory evacuation orders, and more than 135 000 were still in government shelters by last night.

– AFP