Typhoon Batters Tokyo, Moves On
Date: 10-Sep-07
Country: JAPAN
Author: Hiroaki Watanabe
The typhoon, the biggest to hit Tokyo since October 2002,
brought down record rainfall in many parts of the capital, but
by afternoon it had weakened to a tropical storm.
Rescue workers searched for homeless people swept away by a
swollen Tama river as they slept in shacks along its banks in
western Tokyo.
Many were winched to safety by helicopters, although local
officials said they were not sure how many others had been
living along the river bank. Kyodo news agency said 29 people
had been rescued.
By noon, the worst of Typhoon Fitow, whose name means
"beautiful fragrant flower" in a Micronesian language, had
passed to the north of Tokyo.
The flood warning for the Tama river was lifted and train
service in the capital had mostly returned to normal.
The eye of the storm was near the Tsugaru Peninsula, some
600 km (375 miles) north of Tokyo, bringing with it winds
gusting to 90 km (56 miles) an hour as of 7 p.m. (1000 GMT),
the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
It had picked up speed and was heading north at 40 km (25
miles) an hour.
Apple growers in the path of the storm hurried to pick
their crops as the storm approached.
"If the apples get damaged by falling, all the effort and
cost up until now will be wasted," a farmer told NHK as he
harvested apples five days ahead of schedule.
During the night, a 76-year-old man was killed by a falling
tree northwest of Tokyo, local police said. At least 69 people
had been injured and another was missing, NHK television said.
A construction worker died after being trapped in a
landslide that had hit a dam being built in Fukui, northwestern
Japan, a local government official said. But it was not clear
whether the death was linked to the typhoon, he added.
Bedraggled commuters struggled to get to work on Friday
with some expressways closed and trains, including high-speed
bullet services, delayed or cancelled on many lines. About 10
million people commute to work or school in Tokyo.
Some travellers blamed climate change.
"It's rare for Tokyo to get hit directly like this," said
Miho Kaido, a 36-year-old tourist who came by taxi to Tokyo
station to catch a bus to Aomori in northern Japan. "The worst
thing is that the trains are not running. I think global
warming is having an impact and making the weather more
severe."
In central Tokyo, tree branches and leaves littered the
streets and broken umbrellas were snagged in fences and under
parked cars after the stormy night, as clean-up crews moved
methodically in the rain to remove the debris.
In July, a typhoon killed three people and injured more
than 70 when it hit the southern island of Kyushu and moved
along the country's eastern coastline.
(Additional reporting by Isabel Reynolds, Yoko Kubota,
Linda Sieg, George Nishiyama and Teruaki Ueno)
