Typhoon hits Japan but nuclear plant safe

A POWERFUL typhoon slammed into Japan’s east coast yesterday, leaving six people dead or missing in south-central regions and halting trains in Tokyo before grazing a crippled nuclear plant in the tsunami-ravaged north-east.

Officials at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, where engineers are still struggling with small radiation leaks due to tsunami damage, expressed relief that the heavy rains and driving winds from Typhoon Roke caused no immediate problems there other than a broken security camera.

“The worst seems to be over,” said Takeo Iwamoto, spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co, after the storm passed just west of the plant and headed north.

More than 200,000 households in central Japan were without electricity late yesterday.

Police and local media reported that at least six people were dead or missing in southern and central regions, mostly from being swept away by rivers swollen with rains

The storm, packing sustained winds of up to 90mph, made landfall in early afternoon near the city of Hamamatsu, about 200km west of Tokyo.

The fast-moving storm went past the capital in the evening and then headed into the Tohoku region devastated by the March 11 tsunami.

In Tokyo, where many rush-hour commuter trains were suspended, thousands of commuters trying to rush home were stuck at stations across the city.

“The hotels in the vicinity are all booked up, so I’m waiting for the bullet train to restart,” Hiromu Harada, a businessman, said at Tokyo Station.

Fire department officials reported three people injured in Tokyo. In the trendy shopping district of Shibuya, winds knocked over a tree onto a sidewalk, but no one was hurt. Television footage showed pedestrians struggling to walk straight in powerful winds.

The storm passed just west of the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, where engineers are still working to stabilise the reactors after three melted down when the tsunami cut off power to the plant and its back-up generators.

Iwamoto said the cooling system for the reactors, crucial to keeping them under control, survived the typhoon.

A closed-circuit camera that shows exteriors of the damaged reactor buildings abruptly stopped when the storm passed.

Workers were trying to prevent pools of contaminated water in the plant from flooding and leaking outside the complex.

A typhoon that slammed Japan earlier this month left about 90 people dead or missing.