Japanese storm kills four people

Tropical storm Chataan killed four people today as it struck along the coastline of northern Japan, burying an elderly man in a landslide and sweeping away a woman and her house in a flash flood.

About 165,000 people were evacuated because of floods that inundated hundreds of homes and wiped out bridges across the country.

The storm, blamed for dozens of deaths in the Philippines and Micronesia, hit Japan early yesterday. After dropping heavy rains across the country and causing several rivers to flood, it was moving up the northern part of Japan’s main island.

By today, police said four people had died, including a 72-year-old woman whose house was swept away in floods. A 78-year-old man living nearby was also killed when mudslides buried his home.

Elsewhere, an elementary schoolboy missing since yesterday was found dead in a swollen river just north of Tokyo.

And a 13-year-old boy also died after chasing a football into a fast-flowing river in southern Japan.

Nearly 1,000 houses across the country have been swamped by floods, while seven bridges have been swept away, the National Police Agency said today. Landslides have struck 154 locations.

About 65,000 people in Koriyama, 124 miles northeast of Tokyo, were ordered to move to higher ground as local rivers overflowed their banks, city spokesman Masahiro Shishido said.

In the coastal city of Kesennuma, 118 miles northeast of Koriyama, another 61,000 residents were ordered to leave their homes, city spokesman Akira Sato said.

Tens of thousands more were evacuated in central Japan, which was hit hard by rains and flooding.

Downgraded from typhoon status, Chataan packed sustained winds of 67 mph.

Despite predictions that the storm would pass directly over Tokyo, the capital was largely spared as it moved into the Pacific Ocean overnight.

The storm was hugging the coastline, however, and expected to hit the northern island of Hokkaido late today or early tomorrow, the Meteorological Agency said.

The storm disrupted transport nationwide.

More than a dozen super-express train running between Tokyo and Osaka, Japan’s second-largest city, were suspended and some railway lines and roads were closed because of heavy rains.

Several commercial flights to southern Japan were cancelled yesterday morning. As the storm moved north, dozens more in and out of Tokyo were cancelled later in the day.

Chataan caused 46 deaths in Micronesia and, combined with monsoon rains, also left 29 dead in the Philippines.