September 7, 2011 – TOKYO – Thousands of people remained stranded in western Japan Tuesday as the death toll from a fierce typhoon rose to 42, heaping more misery on a nation recovering from the March earthquake and tsunami. Torrential rain brought by powerful Typhoon Talas, which made landfall Saturday and was the deadliest in seven years, caused rivers to swell and triggered floods and landslides that swept away buildings, homes and roads. More than 50 people were still missing, local authorities told AFP, while Japanese media reported another 100 or so could not be contacted in hard-hit Wakayama prefecture. In Shingu city and Nachikatsuura town in Wakayama prefecture, “a considerable number of people have yet to be reached for confirmation of safety,” a local police official said without elaborating further. New Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who was sworn in last week, plans to visit the affected areas on Friday to inspect the damage from the deadly typhoon, top government spokesman Osamu Fujimura said. Noda will also visit Fukushima on Thursday, home to a nuclear plant crippled by the March 11 disaster at the centre of the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago. As police, firefighters and self-defense force troops continued their painstaking search for the missing, local authorities were planning to air-drop more food and water to those isolated by the disaster. In severely affected Wakayama, about 4,500 people remained stranded in communities that could not be reached due to collapsed roads, according to a local official. –Terra Daily