Heavy rains from Typhoon Megi leave one dead, one missing in Japan

TOKYO (AFP) Aug 17, 2004
Heavy rains from Typhoon Megi Tuesday left one person dead and another missing in western Japan and prompted evacuation orders amid flooding and fears of landslides, officials and reports said.

A 78-year-old farmer was suspected drowned after being swept into an overflowing irrigation ditch in Shikokuchuo city, said Kenji Soyama, a police officer from nearby Mishima, some 600 kilometers (380 miles) west of Tokyo.

Another 84-year-old man went missing after being swept away in a watery ditch in front of his home in nearby Kotohira, according to Katsumi Watanabe of the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

Flooding and fears of landslides prompted evacuation orders for some 300 households in Kochi and Kagawa prefectures on the rain-hit island of Shikoku, Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) reported.

The typhoon dumped as much as 50 millimeters (two inches) of rain an hour on Japan's Pacific coast, the Meteorological Agency said.

Megi, which means fish in Korean, was just southwest of the southern island of Okinawa at 7:00 pm (1000 GMT) packing winds of 90 kilometers per hourmiles per hour), the agency said.

The 15th typhoon of the season was heading north, expected to hit the Korean Peninsula late Wednesday and then turn east back toward Japan, the agency said.

TERRA.WIRE