Typhoon Bart Kills 26 as It Tears Into Japan

TOKYO — Typhoon Bart lashed Japan on Friday with driving rain and wind that shattered windows, downed power lines, knocked over cranes and killed at least 26 people.

Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido braced for the storm, which was traveling northeast over the ocean off the western coast of Japan. Packing winds as high as 67 mph and moving at 31 mph, Bart was expected to hit Hokkaido today, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The storm pounded the main island of Honshu and the southwestern island of Kyushu. More than 537 people were injured before the storm moved northeast.

On Kyushu, 14 bodies were recovered from homes submerged by high waves in Shiranui, a coastal town in Kumamoto prefecture, 560 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Also in Kumamoto, a 79-year-old man was found dead of electric shock from a power line that had fallen onto a street, and a 50-year-old man bled to death after he was hit by broken glass in his home.

In Hiroshima, two factory cranes toppled by strong winds crashed onto a building, killing three workers and injuring one, police said.

A 50-year-old man died Thursday as the typhoon approached Kyushu. He was swept away in strong waves as he tried to swim ashore after securing his boat, police said.

The circumstances of the rest of the deaths were unclear. Two people were reported missing.

The National Police Agency said 245 landslides were reported, 22 homes were destroyed and more than 4,000 homes were flooded.

One of Japan’s most famous Shinto sites, the Itsukushima Shrine, whose location in a bay makes it appear to be floating at high tide, suffered damage in the storm. The structure, located on the island of Miyajima, is on the U.N. World Cultural Heritage List.

Most domestic flights and trains on Kyushu were either canceled or suspended.

Also Friday, a tornado unrelated to the typhoon struck a city in central Japan, slightly injuring 262 people, mostly schoolchildren hit by glass from shattered windows. The twister swept through Toyohashi, 140 miles west of Tokyo, for about 30 minutes Friday morning, destroying three homes and damaging dozens of others.

Earlier on Okinawa, 24 people were injured and about 110,000 homes suffered power outages.