Record Rains

The disasters just keep coming as New Orleans gets pounded with up to 20 inches of rain while Vermont is still trying to bring back power after record rains....and now the reports are coming in from Japan that record rains are swamping parts of that country.

TOKYO (AP) — Rescuers in Japan dug through mud-caked debris and searched the banks of swollen rivers Monday for those missing in a powerful typhoon that left at least 25 people dead, the latest disaster for a country still recovering from a calamitous tsunami six months ago.

Typhoon Talas, which was later downgraded to a tropical storm, lashed coastal areas with destructive winds and record-setting rains over the weekend. In addition to the dead and missing, thousands more were stranded as the typhoon washed out bridges, railways and roads.

"We will do everything we can to rescue people and search for the missing," said new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who took office just one day before the typhoon hit and whose government is still struggling to deal with the tsunami recovery and the ensuing nuclear crisis.

The typhoon was believed to be the worst to hit Japan since 2004, when 98 people were killed or reported missing. It caused most of its damage on the Kii Peninsula, in central Japan southwest of Tokyo and hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the country's tsunami-ravaged northeastern coast.

Read it here;  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5juYrtbK0F3NUootOzFA5Tca-barA?docId=b061366ed29f43d29358880dbb8f51f2