21 dead or missing as typhoon hits Japan
A powerful typhoon cut across Japan yesterday, leaving at least 21 dead or missing and injuring 45, as 100,000 people were ordered to flee their homes, officials and media reports said.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called off campaign stops in the main southern island of Kyushu before Sunday's election.
Nabi, packing winds of up to 126km per hour, headed toward the Sea of Japan (East Sea) late Tuesday as it swept over Kyushu in a matter of hours, the Meteorological Agency said.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Moving north at just 25km per hour, the typhoon has swamped the archipelago with more than 1,000 millimetres (40 inches) of rain since Sunday afternoon.
The typhoon was weaker than Hurricane Katrina but it brought violent winds of 90km an hour or more across a radius of nearly 300km, wider than the 220km Katrina covered at its peak.
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