Japan: Typhoon Wipha Sweeps Through Country

At least 17 people are reported dead and 50 people missing in a typhoon that caused deadly mudslides and destroyed homes as it swept up Japan's east coast.

The area worst hit by the "once in a decade" typhoon was the Japanese island of Izu Oshima, home to about 8,200 people and lying about 75 miles south of Tokyo where more than 280 homes were destroyed.

More than 30 inches (76cm) of rain fell on the island during a 24-hour period, the most since record-keeping began in 1991.

The rainfall was particularly heavy before dawn, the kind in which "you can't see anything or hear anything," a Japanese meteorologist said.

Television footage showed roads clogged with wreckage and houses with gaping holes smashed into them.

"I heard a crackling sound and then the trees on the hillside all fell over," one woman said. 

Yutaka Sagara, a 59-year-old sushi chef on the east coast of the island, said he spent a sleepless night with colleagues at their company housing.

Residents pay their respect to the body of a victim of the typhoon

Their hillside apartment barely escaped a mudslide that veered off to the side. Later he found out the mudslide had crushed several houses as it flowed to the sea.

"People on this island are somewhat used to heavy rainstorms, but this typhoon was beyond our imagination," he said, speaking by phone.

The storm brought hurricane-force winds and drenching rain to the Tokyo metropolitan area of 30 million people at the peak of the morning rush hour and hundreds of flights were cancelled.

A woman from Tokyo died after falling into a river - her body was found six miles away in Yokohama, police said.

Two sixth-grade boys and another person are missing from Japan's main island of Honshu.

The operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, Tokyo Electric Power Corp, cancelled all offshore work and secured machinery as the storm approached.

The typhoon, which stayed offshore in the Pacific, sustained winds of 78 mph, with gusts up to 110 mph, before it was downgraded to a tropical storm.

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