Typhoon Wipha Leaves 13 Dead In Japan

Thirteen people were killed and over 30 missing, with nearly 20,000 people ordered to evacuate on Wednesday (October 16) as Typhoon Wipha swept through Tokyo, leaving a trail of wreckage on one small island but largely sparing the capital.

The storm brought hurricane-force winds and drenching rain to the metropolis of 30 million people at the peak of the morning rush hour, halting some train services.

Other trains operated at partial capacity, filled with stoic office workers clutching umbrellas.

Thirteen people were found dead on Izu Oshima island some 120 km south of Tokyo after the storm touched off mudslides along a 2 km (1.2 mile) swathe of mountains.

The Japanese government said that they had set up an emergency team to deal with the typhoon's aftermath.

In western Tokyo, one woman was swept away by a swollen river and another 37 people were also missing nationwide, the Japanese government said, including two schoolboys engulfed by mammoth waves on a beach. A score of people also suffered minor injuries from falls and being struck by flying objects such as roof tiles.

Though nearly 20,000 were advised to evacuate as Wipha, which had been billed as a once-in-a-decade typhoon, bore down, aside from some flooded streets there were few reports of significant damage in the capital itself.

Operators of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant north of Tokyo said they were pumping rainwater out of protective containers at the base of some 1,000 tanks storing radioactive water, and were taking other precautions as Typhoon Wipha moved up Japan's Pacific coastline. The rainwater is being pumped into an empty tank, checked for radioactivity and, if uncontaminated, released into the sea, the company said.

Wipha carried sustained winds at its centre of 126 kph (78 mph) and gusts up to 180 kph (112 mph) and was expected to weaken into a tropical depression later on Wednesday.

Presented by Adam Justice