9 Dead, 21 Injured As Tornado Hits Northern Japan (Hokkaido) - AFP

[hatrack]

A rare tornado tore across Japan's far north on Tuesday, killing nine people and leaving dozens more destitute in a single town as it laid waste to homes used by construction workers, officials said. The tornado scorched through Saroma in the far north of the island of Hokkaido, tearing apart the prefabricated homes of workers who were digging a nearby tunnel.

"I saw the tornado passing behind my car. It was 100 meters wide and it moved along for about one kilometer," or about half a mile, said local official Takeshi Mukai, 45. "It all happened before I could say, 'Oh!'" The tornado, which struck amid heavy rain, made a direct hit on the workers' barracks, killing nine of them inside a portable building, said town official Atsushi Iida.

"The bodies of the nine people were retrieved from the site of a makeshift two-story office building where they were presumed to be having a meeting," he said. At least 21 other people were hospitalized, police said.

"It seemed that it came out of nowhere and vanished all at once," said senior fire department official Yoshihiro Sasaki. Thirty-three homes were completely destroyed, with 29 others suffering partial damage, said Chiaki Kichimoto, an official at the Saroma town office.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2006/061107125231.ehscv2ie.html

:wtf:

[Systematic Chaos]

1. I'm still waiting or the start of the South Atlantic hurricane season.

:scared:

That sucks. You would think that Hokkaido would get some nasty Siberian cold fronts and blizzards, sure. But a TORNADO? That far NORTH? And in NOVEMBER???

:wtf: is right!!