Killer Tornado hits Hokkaido

[ichigo partygirl]

Tornado kills 9 people in Hokkaido



SAROMA, Hokkaido -- Nine people died and numerous others were injured here after their neighborhood was hit by a tornado on Tuesday afternoon, a local disaster management body said.

At about 1:20 p.m., a tornado hit the eastern Hokkaido town of Saroma and destroyed several pre-fabricated structures used by construction workers at a tunnel construction site, according to the disaster management body in the Engaru district.

At least nine people died and numerous others are believed to have been injured. (Mainichi)

(http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20061107p2a00m0na018000c.html)

[ichigo partygirl]

Update: Japan Today are reporting "at least six other people have been missing since the tornado hit the town after 1 p.m. Police said that about 20 people were buried under collapsed prefabricated houses at the work site. Town officials said about 10 buildings had collapsed in the town"

[IkemenTommy]

Usually when something like this happens in the US, a few trailer homes get tossed around and a couple hundred dollars done in damages. Something like this in Japan would be devastating.

[dimwit]

Okay what confuses me about this story is that tornados tend to strike in areas of flat land which is why the are so common in the mid-western US and Canada and so rare in Japan. That being the case what was a tunnel construction crew doing making a tunnel on flat land?:confused: