Typhoon Talim leaves at least 2 dead

September 18, 2017

TOKYO- Typhoon Talim has left at least two people dead and three missing in Japan, police and other authorities said Monday.

After ripping through the southwestern and western regions, the 18th typhoon of the year made landfall in Hokkaido on Monday morning, disrupting air and train services mainly in the northernmost prefecture.

In Kochi Prefecture, western Japan, a 60-year-old local man was found dead inside a sunken car in a river in the town of Shimanto. The car is believed to have fallen into the river Sunday afternoon.

An 86-year-old woman was found buried in mud and later confirmed dead in the city of Mitoyo in Kagawa Prefecture, near Kochi. Her house was swept by mudslide on Sunday.

Two people are missing in Kochi, and one in Oita Prefecture in southwestern Japan, local authorities said.

In the northeastern prefecture of Yamagata, a Yamagata Shinkansen bullet train hit a fallen tree between Ashisawa Station and Oishida Station early Monday morning, but nobody was injured, according to the operator, East Japan Railway Co. or JR East.

The typhoon also caused JR East to cancel some Akita Shinkansen trains also in the northeastern region and Hokkaido Japan Railway Co., or JR Hokkaido, some Hokkaido Shinkansen trains.

Japan Airlines decided to cancel 96 flights and All Nippon Airways 114 flights. Their moves affected more than 20,000 people in total.

As of 4 p.m. (7 a.m. GMT), Typhoon Talim was traveling north-northeast at a location about 70 kilometers southeast of Wakkanai, Hokkaido, at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour. The typhoon, with an atmospheric pressure of 975 hectopascals at its center, had a maximum sustained wind speed of 30 meters per second.

It caused unusually heavy rains in many parts of Hokkaido from early Monday morning, including the towns of Shiriuchi and Kikonai. Mudslide warnings and evacuation orders were issued in various places. Jiji Press