Tropical Storm Lashes Japan

A powerful but weakening tropical storm pounded Japan Wednesday and Thursday, finally moving out to sea after forcing over 120,000 people to be evacuated in two northeastern cities and leaving four more dead.

Tropical storm Chataan flooded about 2,000 homes before moving north to Japan's northernmost island, Hokkaido, the National Police Agency said.

A spokesman for the city of Kushiro on Hokkaido said there were no immediate reports of damage and no evacuations.

Besides the four dead, four others were missing so far, police said.

A 78-year-old man was killed when mudslides buried his home and a 72-year-old woman living nearby died when her house was swept away by flood waters.

In Oita, southern Japan, junior high school student Dai Shuto was found dead in a swollen river where he went missing after chasing a soccer ball while playing with his classmates at a riverbank playground.

Two men who had been fishing were swept away by the rain-swollen river. One was rescued by helicopter but the other, a 53-year-old truck driver, is still missing.

The city of Ogaki, a farming and industrial city in central Japan, ordered 6,675 people to evacuate their homes to city-run facilities and school gymnasiums as a river flooded its banks.

About 8,980 more residents in other areas drenched by the rains in central Japan were also evacuated and more than 100 schools were shut, said Yuuichi Kakami, a spokesman for Gifu Prefecture, which is the hardest hit region. About 51 homes were submerged by nearby rivers that had risen above their banks.

Officials in Gifu are warning that the floods could trigger landslides.

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

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

Packing sustained winds of 67 mph, tropical storm Chataan crossed over several small outlying islands and came ashore on southern Shikoku, one of Japan's four main islands, Wednesday. Heavy rains were washing over much of Japan's main island throughout the day.

The fierce storm snarled air and rail traffic throughout Japan. More than a dozen super-express train runs between Tokyo and Osaka, Japan's second-largest urban hub, were suspended leaving some 177,000 travelers stranded. The flood wiped out seven bridges and some local railway lines and highways were also closed because of heavy rains.

The storm even forced the nation's largest automaker - Toyota - to halt production at twelve factories.

Several commercial flights to southern Japan were canceled Wednesday morning. As the storm moved northward, dozens more in and out of Tokyo were canceled later in the day.

Though downgraded from typhoon status, Chataan has caused dozens of deaths so far, including 46 in Micronesia. Chataan, combined with monsoon rains, also left 29 dead in the Philippines.

Chataan means "rainy day" in the Chamorro language, which is spoken in Guam.