Hundreds left homeless after typhoon hits Japan

(Vatican Radio) At least one person is dead and hundreds are homeless after a typhoon swept across Japan. As Alastair Wanklyn reports from Tokyo, the low casualty toll may be thanks to timely action by authorities.

The typhoon made landfall in central Japan and swept northwards, near major cities such as Tokyo.

In some towns, the wind ripped the roofs off buildings and sent cars flying, and heavy rainfall caused rivers to flood.

Thousands of people spent the day in shelters because Japan's weather agency issued a high alert hours before the typhoon struck.

It was a new kind of warning, one adopted as policy only last month. National NHK television carried a weather-agency official saying...


...there was "unexpectedly high rainfall and people should take action to protect their lives."

Evacuation orders -- or advisories -- went out to more than half a million people here. Those not watching television heard the message through loudspeakers in the streets, operated by their local town hall.

Residents of Japanese towns have designated evacuation centres, sometimes a nearby park or a school building that has been strengthened to resist earthquakes.

It's unclear in this case whether the evacuations saved lives, but since the 2011 quake and tsunami local authorities here have given heavy publicity to their evacuation procedures. Listen to Alastair Wanklyn's report