14 die after heavy rain due to typhoon hits western Japan

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KOBE, Aug. 11 Kyodo -
The death toll from Monday's floods and landslides due to torrential rain
caused by a typhoon rose to 14 in western Japan on Tuesday, while 13 other
people remain missing, local police said.
In the hardest-hit town of Sayo, Hyogo Prefecture, the police recovered the
body of a woman from a canal on Tuesday afternoon, while police and
Self-Defense Forces rescue workers continued their search for 10 people who
remain missing in the town.
The police suspect those still missing were washed away by swollen rivers.
Of the three other people who are missing, one was in Hyogo's Toyooka city and
two were in Tokushima Prefecture.
A task force headed by Motoo Hayashi, state minister in charge of disaster
preparedness, visited Sayo on Tuesday, with Hyogo Gov. Toshizo Ido asking the
central government to designate the case as a serious disaster under Japan's
relief law so as to provide financial support.
Typhoon Etau was moving eastward southeast of the main island of Honshu away
from Japan at 25 kilometers per hour as of 9 p.m. with an atmospheric pressure
of 994 hectopascals and packing winds of up to 105 kph near its center, the
Japan Meteorological Agency said.
About 1,000 people were continuing to take shelter in Sayo as of Tuesday night,
and the water supply to 4,600 households remained cut off -- a situation likely
to last up to a week. Around 1,660 households were engulfed.
==Kyodo