Typhoon Halong leaves up to 10 dead in Japan
PUBLISHED ON AUG 11, 2014 1:10 PM
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This picture taken on August 10, 2014 shows muddy water running under a wooden made bridge in Kyoto, western Japan. -PHOTO: AFP
TOKYO (AFP) - As many as 10 people died and dozens were injured when Typhoon Halong
slammed into the Japanese archipelago over the weekend, reports said on Monday, with
heavy rain still lashing the country's north.
The storm was moving over the Sea of Japan (East Sea), after making landfall on the largest
and most populous island of Honshu over the weekend, the Japan Meteorological Agency
said.
The outer bands of the storm were continuing to lash northern Japan with heavy rain as
officials warned of landslides, floods and possible tornadoes in the area. The agency
downgraded the typhoon to a tropical storm at 9.00am (0000 GMT) on Monday as it heads
toward the far eastern coast of Russia.
The storm, as well as heavy rain last week, killed two people and injured 86 across the
country, public broadcaster NHK reported. But the leading Nikkei newspaper said as many as
10 deaths were linked to the storm.
Among the victims, the body of an Iranian man was found in Ibaraki, northeast of Tokyo,
along with two Japanese women in Sakai and Takamatsu, in the country's west, the Nikkei
said.
The National Police Agency declined to confirm the number of deaths from the storm, saying
it had yet to compile a nationwide total.
The coastguard on Monday resumed searching for a man who went missing apparently while
surfing off Wakayama in western Japan during the storm. "Police and the coastguard
dispatched one rescue boat and two helicopters but we have not found any sign of him," a
police spokesman said.
The weather agency had issued its highest warning on Saturday - meaning a threat to life and
the risk of massive damage - for Mie prefecture, some 300 kilometres west of Tokyo. The
warning, which was lifted on Sunday afternoon, said there could be "unprecedented"
torrential rain that might trigger massive landslides and floods.
Local authorities, mainly in western Japan, issued evacuation advisories to more than 1.6
million people in total, NHK said.
Airline services largely returned to normal with just a handful of flights cancelled on Monday
after more than 700 flights were called off during the weekend, which came just as Japan
began its annual "Obon" summer holiday.
In July, typhoon Neoguri killed several people and left a trail of destruction in southern Japan.
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Floods hit blast-ravaged Taiwan city
PUBLISHED ON AUG 11, 2014 4:57 PM
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TAIPE (AFP) - Torrential rain Monday forced the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung to shut
schools and offices as floods overwhelmed its sewage system which was severely damaged
by gas explosions last month that killed 30 people and injured 300.
Residents rushed to pile up sandbags in the two districts where drainage systems were
affected by the blasts but many were marooned by the rising waters.
At least 180 mm of rain fell Monday morning following weekend downpours which dumped
hundreds of millimetres of rain on the southern city.
"We've deployed dozens of water pumps in the two districts hoping they would help drain the
water," a city government official said.
Around 360,000 people live in the two districts, accounting for around 13 per cent of the
population of Taiwan's second biggest city.
"The flooding over the past few days was caused by the serious damage caused to the sewage
systems by the gas explosions," Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu said.
The July 31 explosions in underground industrial pipelines that cross the city sparked
massive fires, leaving trenches running down the middle of some streets and throwing
vehicles onto the roofs of buildings several stories high.
Reconstruction work has ground to a virtual standstill due to the flooding and the Central
Weather Bureau warned of more downpours across southern Taiwan until Wednesday,
raising fears of further floods.
One angry resident told Formosa TV that his home had been flooded several times since last
week.
"This has never happened before," he said.
The government and local authorities dispute who bears responsibility for failing to monitor
the safety of the pipelines that exploded, as well as who should shoulder the massive
reconstruction costs.
The city blames Taiwanese company LCY Chemical Corp. for the blasts, saying around 10
tonnes of propene may have leaked from pipelines operated by the firm in the hours before
the first blast.
Prosecutors have twice raided the offices of LCY Chemical as part of their investigation into
the cause of the accident.
The incident has already brought down economic minister Chang Chia-juch.
Kaohsiung's deputy mayor and three other officials in the city government have also resigned,
but have been asked to stay on until the disaster relief operations have been completed.
Kaohsiung lies adjacent to a huge petrochemical complex housing dozens of plants, and
many pipelines run under the densely-packed city.
The explosions were the second disaster to strike Taiwan in just over a week, after a
TransAsia Airways plane crashed with the loss of 48 lives on July 23.
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