Tropical Storm Dianmu Comes Ashore in N. Japan After Killing Five in Korea

Tropical Storm Dianmu, which left five people dead in South Korea, swept ashore in northern Japan with torrential rains and strong winds that disrupted rail, road and air travel.

Dianmu made landfall close to Akita City on Japan’s main island of Honshu, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said in a bulletin at 5:45 p.m. Tokyo time. The storm had sustained winds of 83 kilometers (52 miles) per hour with gusts up to 120 kilometers an hour as it came ashore, the agency said.

As much as 7 centimeters (2.8 inches) of rain fell per hour in parts of northern Honshu, the agency said. Parts of Hokkaido have received about 30 centimeters of rain today. Pictures from Japanese broadcaster NHK showed rain, flooding and landslides in northern prefectures of Akita, Iwate, Aomori and Hokkaido.

Train services on 10 lines were canceled or disrupted in northern Honshu and Hokkaido, train operators East Japan Railway Co. and Hokkaido Railway Co. said in statements on their websites. Parts of the highway network in southern Hokkaido were also closed, according to the Japan Highway Public Corp.

All Nippon Airways Co. diverted one flight from Osaka to Akita due to bad weather, the company said in an emailed statement. Japan Airlines Corp. had no disruptions.

The storm disrupted domestic transport links during one of the busiest holiday seasons, Obon, when many people return to their hometowns to visit relatives.

Dianmu is expected to cross northern Honshu and skirt the southern coast of Hokkaido tomorrow, the weather agency said.

In South Korea, five people were killed in the storm, the National Emergency Management Agency said on its website.

Dianmu is the goddess who commands thunder and lightning in Chinese mythology, according to the website of the Hong Kong Observatory, which lists names assigned to cyclones in the South China Sea and northwestern Pacific.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net.

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