Winter storm leaves 17 dead in Japan - including elderly woman found buried under heavy snow

Winter storm leaves 17 dead in Japan – including elderly woman found buried under heavy snow

A powerful winter storm in Japan has killed 17, including a woman found buried under a heavy pile of snowfall, officials have said.

The storm has been dumping snow in northern regions since before Christmas, stranding hundreds of vehicles on highways and delaying delivery services. It has injured more than 90 people and left hundreds of homes without power.

Further bad weather over the Christmas weekend raised the death toll from 11 as of Saturday to 17 on Monday, according to Japan‘s Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

Many of those who died had fallen while removing snow from roofs or were buried underneath thick piles of snow sliding off rooftops.

The disaster management agency said a woman in her 70s was found dead buried underneath a thick pile of rooftop snow that suddenly fell on her in Yamagata prefecture’s Nagai City, about 180 miles north of Tokyo, where snow piled up higher than 2.6ft on Saturday.

Municipal offices in the snow-hit regions urged residents to use caution during snow removal activity and not to work alone.

Many northeastern parts of the country reported three times their average snowfall for the season.

Heavy snow knocked down an electric power transmission tower in Japan’s northernmost main island, leaving about 20,000 homes without power on Christmas morning before electricity was restored in most areas later that day, according to Japan’s economy and industry ministry.

Dozens of trains and flights were also suspended in northern Japan on Sunday, but services have since mostly resumed, according to the transportation ministry.

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