Deadly storms hit Japan and Texas

A huge storm killed at least four people in Japan, police said on Wednesday, as violent wind and rain battered the nation and disrupted transport for a second day.

The storm moved east and was covering all of the north of Japan's main island of Honshu and much of the northernmost island of Hokkaido, buffeting the region with strong winds caused by what meteorologists say is a severe low-pressure system.

A tornado touches down in Lancaster, Texas, south of Dallas, on Tuesday. Parrish Velasco / AP

On Sado island, northwest of Honshu, gusts of up to 156 kilometers per hour were recorded.

The dead included a 96-year-old man, who fell from the roof of a three-story house during high winds, and a 28-year-old woman, who was hit by a falling tree while walking a dog.

The storm temporarily reduced electricity supplies to the Onagawa nuclear power plant, in Miyagi prefecture, halting the cooling system for a fuel pool, operator Tohoku-Electric Power Co. said.

Plant workers manually restarted the cooling system after about 20 minutes, it said. "There was no problem in the operation," a company spokesman added.

All reactors at the plant are currently idle.

The stormy weather also cut electricity supplies to 132,000 households in the northern Tohoku region as of mid-afternoon on Wednesday, according to the utility.

Transport was widely disrupted on Tuesday as the storm moved through Japan, with about 600 domestic flights cancelled, affecting some 74,000 passengers.

On Wednesday 72 flights were grounded, stranding around 6,000 people.

Many commuter lines and some shinkansen bullet train services were also suspended because of the wind.

Tornadoes in Texas

In the United States, tornadoes swept through the Dallas area on Tuesday, crumbling the wing of a nursing home, peeling roofs from dozens of homes and spiraling truck trailers into the air like footballs. More than a dozen injuries were reported.

Overturned cars left streets unnavigable, and flattened trucks clogged highway shoulders. Preliminary estimates were that six to 12 twisters had touched down in North Texas, senior National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Martello said. But firm numbers would only come after survey teams checked damage on Wednesday, he said.

In suburban Dallas, Lancaster police officer Paul Beck said 10 people were injured, two of them severely. Three people were injured in Arlington, including two residents of a nursing home, who were taken to a hospital with minor injuries after swirling winds clipped the building, city assistant fire chief Jim Self said.

"Of course the windows were flying out, and my sister is paralyzed, so I had to get someone to help me get her in a wheelchair to get her out of the room," said Joy Johnston, who was visiting her 79-year-old sister at the Green Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. "It was terribly loud."

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport canceled hundreds of flights and diverted others heading its way. Among the most stunning videos was an industrial section of Dallas, where rows of empty tractor-trailers, crumpled like soda cans, littered a parking lot.

Tornadoes touched down near Royce City and Silver Springs, said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Bishop.

April is the peak of the tornado season, which runs from March until June. "We're on pace to be above normal," Bishop said after Tuesday's storms.

Johnston said her sister was taken to the hospital because of her delicate health. Another resident at the nursing home, Louella Curtis, 92, said workers roused her out of bed and put her in the hall.

"The hallways were all jammed," Johnston said. "Everyone was trying to help each other, to make a path for others. I'd say everybody was out of their rooms within 20 minutes."

Meteorologists said the storms were the result of a slow-moving storm system centered over northern New Mexico.

AFP-AP

A woman tries to hold on to a broken umbrella as she walks in strong wind and rain in Tokyo on Tuesday. Yuriko Nakao / Reuters

David Lowe carries his daughter's dog, Phoebe. The pet was found under a destroyed home in Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday after the storm. Ron Jenkins / AP