Oshima Island Typhoon Death Toll Rises To 18

Above, a view of Oshima Island from Atami.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Oshima Island has been in the news since the major typhoon struck this week, causing massive damages and killing 18 (so far) from mudslides on the island.

Here's the latest from The Japan News:

The death toll on Tokyo’s Izu Oshima island from the torrential rains caused by Typhoon No. 26 has risen to 18, the Tokyo metropolitan government announced Thursday morning. 

The Metropolitan Police Department, the Tokyo Fire Department and the Ground Self-Defense Force increased the number of personnel in the search and rescue operations for survivors to about 650, but the operations on the island in the Izu Islands chain made little progress. 

Meanwhile, the land ministry’s research organ has discovered evidence of debris flows—the geological phenomena in which torrential rain washes away soil and fragmented rock like a rapid stream—in the affected area on the island.

If Oshima Island sounds familiar to Godzilla fans, it should. It was where Godzilla was lured into the island's volcano in Return of Godzilla (1984) (released in the U.S. as Godzilla 1985). There is a stone Godzilla statue at the Hamano Hot Spring Resort on the island.

The island is administered by the Tokyo Metropolitan government.

For more on Oshima, go here.