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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Landslide survivors offer prayers as the body of a victim is carried by rescue workers in the rubble of houses in Oshima damaged by landslides after a powerful typhoon hit Izu Oshima island, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Tokyo Wednesday morning, Oct. 16, 2013. Typhoon Wipha triggered landslides and caused multiple deaths on the Japanese island, before sweeping up the country's east coast, grounding hundreds of flights and paralyzing public transportation in Tokyo during Wednesday morning's rush hour. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, CREDIT MANDATORY
Honolulu International Airport said no flights to or from Japan on Tuesday have been canceled as a result of a typhoon that was projected to be the strongest to reach the country in 10 years.
Typhoon Wipha triggered landslides and caused at least 13 deaths on a Japanese island, before sweeping up the country’s east coast, grounding hundreds of flights and paralyzing public transportation in Tokyo during the morning’s rush hour.
Wipha packed winds of up to 110 mph and stayed offshore in the Pacific. Dozens of schools were closed in the Tokyo area.
A Hawaii Department of Transportation spokeswoman said Honolulu Airport was monitoring the situation.
A local spokeswoman for Japan Airlines said all of its six daily flights from Japan — one each from Osaka, Nagoya and Haneda and three from Narita — were all operating as normal.
Hawaiian Airlines said it wasn’t immediately aware of any flight interruptions. Hawaiian has flights from Haneda, Osaka, Nagoya, Sendai and Fukuoka.
Rescue workers found 13 bodies, most of them buried by mudslides, on Izu Oshima island about 75 miles south of Tokyo, police and town officials said. Dozens of homes were destroyed, and more than 50 people are missing. "We have no idea how bad the extent of damage could be," town official Hinani Uematsu said.
NHK public television showed rescue workers struggling to dig a woman out of a heap of debris as she shrieked in pain. A rescuer told NHK that he almost walked by the spot without seeing the woman in the debris until she cried out, "Help!"
