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Typhoon Wipha causes deadly mudslides, disrupts air, train travel in Japan

Wednesday, October 16, 2013, 8:09 AM -

At least 17 people have died and hundreds of flights have been canceled as Typhoon Wipha pummeled the Tokyo area on Wednesday. 

A local government official in Oshima, a small island 120 kmsouth of Tokyo, said that a majority of the people died after heavy rain triggered flooding and landslides that blocked roads and crushed houses. 

Rescuers were unable to reach about some people in the area hit by landslides.

More than 500 domestic and international flights were canceled at Tokyo's Narita and Haneda airports and the national rail operator halted bullet train services in central and northern Japan. 

The typhoon, which stayed offshore in the Pacific, had sustained winds of 126 kph, with gusts up to 180 kph, before it was downgraded to a tropical storm Wednesday evening. 

The storm was moving northeast, off the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. More than 800 mm of rain fell on Izu Oshima during a 24-hour period ending Wednesday morning, the most since record-keeping began in 1991.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the main electricity supplier in Tokyo and central Japan, said blackouts affected more than 56,000 households. 

TEPCO, which has been struggling to deal with a series of leaks at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, said workers at the plant were "on vigil" and accumulated rainwater had been released from storage tanks. 

With files from Elaine Kurtenbach of The Associated Press