TOKYO FLOODING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22438, 19 September 1947, Page 5

TOKYO FLOODING

TYPHOON HAVOC 3324 DEAD OR MISSING OUTLYING PROVINCES HIT (10 a.m.) TOKYO, Sept. 18. Swirling floodwaters began entering Tokyo’s outskirts at 1.30 p.m. yesterday in the wake of Monday's disastrous typhoon. * According to the Kyodo news agency, the casualties are 1140 dead, 240 injured and 2184 missing. The first Allied casualties in the typhoon were reported today with the death of two American soldiers whose truck ran into a washout and sank in the swirling waters near the flooded Oftrna area. The floodwaters, fed by three rivers north-east of Tokyo, were advancing on the metropolitan area at an estimated speed of one mile per hour and power and communications . were threatened The typhoon's full fury by-passed Toyko’s teeming millions and spent itself over the six surround prefectures, causing severe floods resulting in damage estimated at more than 20,000,000 dollars. Landslides Bury Villages A town and two villages were buried yesterday by landslides on the Kanto Plains. In two, S2 persons were killed and 113 injured when more than 100 houses were crushed under dirt and sand. The landslides virtually buried two villages, killing 100 people and injuring 72. Hundreds of American civilian and military personnel were stranded in trains halted by washed-out road-beds. American amphibian assault boats were picking up marooned Japanese and debris in the swirling waters north of Tokyo.

Special squads were sent to countless small communities submerged by the floodwaters. Some villages were invisible to relief planes which were sent to drop food clothing and medical supplies. The breakdown of water and sewerage systems is reported to be particularly acute in the Ibiraki, Gumma and Saitama prefectures. Planes dropped supplies to Allied and Japanese personnel on stranded trains near Sandai. The railways are expected to be disrupted for three ° r four days.