Tropical storm Etau leaves eight dead, 12 missing in Japan

TOKYO -- Three bodies were found overnight after a tropical storm hit Japan over the weekend, leaving at least eight people dead and a dozen missing, officials said today.

Etau -- rated a typhoon until it was downgraded Friday to a tropical storm -- hit Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido early Sunday. It weakened further and was classified as a "tropical depression" as it moved off into the Pacific Ocean, according to the Meteorological Agency.

Twelve people were missing early today after heavy rains brought flooding, the National Police Agency said.

A woman was found dead late Sunday in a car that had plunged into a river near Hokkaido's Obihiro city about 530 miles northwest of Tokyo, police said.

The storm also was blamed for seven other deaths and 79 injuries in its four-day rampage through the Japanese archipelago.

The storm dumped up to 16 inches of rain on parts of Hokkaido. Winds reached 90 mph during the week, but they'd slowed to less than half that speed by Sunday.

The agency continued to warn of possible landslides on terrain weakened by the heavy rainfall. Torrential rains had flooded more than 1,000 homes, prompting evacuations and disrupting transportation.

Etau struck Japan's outlying southern islands on Thursday and started battering the main islands on Friday.