1934 Muroto typhoon

On September 13, 1934, a tropical cyclone developed over the western Caroline Islands. The storm traveled generally northwest, executing a brief cyclonic loop on September 14–15. After a brief stint traveling nearly due north on September 17, the cyclone began recurving to the northeast. It brushed the Ryukyu Islands to the southeast on September 20 as it accelerated northeast. On the morning of September 21, the typhoon struck Shikoku and southern Honshu. According to the Central Meteorological Observatory (now called the Japan Meteorological Agency), maximum sustained winds reached 150 km/h (90 mph), with gusts exceeding 215 km/h (130 mph). Though surpassed less than a year later during the 1935 Labor Day hurricane in the Florida Keys, it remains the lowest value ever observed in mainland Japan and the third-lowest throughout the country. Crossing mainland Japan, the storm briefly emerged over the Sea of Japan before traversing northern Honshu. The system continued on an easterly course and was last noted in the International Best Track Archive on September 22 moving away from Hokkaido. On September 24, the storm turned north toward the Aleutian Islands of the then Territory of Alaska and deepened. Winds up to Force 10——on the Beaufort scale affected parts of the Aleutians and a pressure of 964 mbar (hPa; 28.47 inHg) was observed near . Traversing the Bering Sea, the system was last identifiable on September 25 over western Alaska. ==Impact==

temple in Osaka after the storm Contemporaneously called the "second-greatest catastrophe of modern Japan", and the "worst typhoon in a generation", of which at least 1,665 deaths were in Osaka Prefecture, and 13,184 others were injured. This ranked it as the deadliest typhoon in Japanese history, until Typhoon Vera in 1959 which killed approximately 5,000 people. A total of 34,262 buildings were destroyed, another 40,274 were severely damaged, In Kōchi Prefecture, where the storm first made landfall, powerful wind gusts—measured up to —caused tremendous damage. Torrential rain accompanied the storm. Throughout Kōchi, 1,815 homes were destroyed and 6,064 were damaged or flooded; 81 people died and 399 more sustained injuries. Sixty-three people died in Muroto when the typhoon's storm surge swept away 550 homes. The greatest damage, however, took place across eastern Osaka Bay. A maximum tide of was observed there, the highest ever for the region. Areas up to inland were inundated by the typhoon's storm surge, total of 49.31 km2 (19.04 mi2) of the city was flooded. ==Aftermath==

, Kyoto Immediately following the typhoon's tremendous impact, the Japanese military was deployed to Osaka before nightfall on September 21 and water was being trucked in. Outbreaks of typhoid fever, dysentery, and scarlet fever plagued survivors in the storm's aftermath. During an October 5 cabinet meeting, Minister of Education Genji Matsuda recommended schools to be built with steel in light of the large number of children killed. Reconstruction of the affected areas required an estimated 100,000 tons of steel. The National Diet held a special meeting in November to address issues regarding the typhoon's aftermath. Following the disaster, a marked increase in actions and countermeasures to storm surge events and typhoons were enacted. Throughout Osaka, construction of breakwaters and embankments alleviated flood risks in coastal communities, reducing the risk of life from roughly 10−3 to 10−7 by the time of Typhoon Nancy in 1961. Before the onset of World War II, total anti-flood construction in Osaka spanned ; this included along rivers and canals, of levees, and of breakwaters. These protected the city from surges of above Osaka Port. Several other projects to expand and rebuild the anti-flood system took place in the decades following World War II. ==See also==