A POWERFUL TYPHOON slammed into Japan today, halting trains and leaving 13 people dead or missing in south-central regions before grazing a crippled nuclear plant and heaping rain on the tsunami-ravaged northeast.

Officials at the Fukushima Daichi plant, where engineers are still struggling with small radiation leaks due to tsunami damage, expressed relief that Typhoon Roke’s driving winds and rain caused no immediate problems there other than a broken security camera.

“The worst seems to be over,” said Takeo Iwamoto, spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., after the storm passed just west of the plant on its way north.

At the Fukushima plant, engineers are still working to stabilise the reactors six months after three of them melted down when the tsunami disabled the plant’s power and back-up generators.

Mudslide warnings

The typhoon brought new misery to the northeastern region already slammed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, dumping up to 17 inches of rain in some areas.

Authorities warned of a high risk of mudslides in that region. Hundreds of tsunami survivors in government shelters in the Miyagi state town of Onagawa were forced to evacuate for fear of flooding.

More than 200,000 households in central Japan were without electricity. Police and local media reported 13 people dead or missing in southern and central regions, many of them believed swept away by rivers swollen with rains.

The storm, packing sustained winds of up to 162 kph, made landfall in the early afternoon near the city of Hamamatsu, about 200 kilometers west of Tokyo. The fast-moving storm went past the capital in the evening and then headed up into the northeast, where it was losing strength.

In Tokyo, where many rush hour commuter trains were suspended, thousands of commuters trying to rush home were stuck at stations across the sprawling city.

A typhoon that slammed Japan earlier this month left about 90 people dead or missing.