TOKYO, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Rescue teams using helicopters raced Wednesday to save thousands of people stranded in western Japan as the death toll mounted from a killer storm.

The death toll from Typhoon Talas -- a slow-moving gigantic storm that struck the country's mountainous region in the west during the weekend -- has risen to 49, while 55 were missing, Kyodo News reported Wednesday.


The storm -- the worst to strike Japan since 2004 -- came as the country is recovering from the monstrous March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeast Japan, setting off the country's worst nuclear plant crisis there and dealing a terrible blow to the country's recovering economy.

Talas lashed western Japan with record torrential rains, causing massive flooding and mudslides, damaging roads and other infrastructure facilities and leaving thousands of people cut off from rest of the country.

More than 8,000 people remained stranded as of Tuesday afternoon in the worst-hit Wakayama, Nara and Mie prefectures on the Kii Peninsula, as dozens of Japan's Self-Defense Forces and police used helicopters to deliver food and other essential supplies and also to rescue people, Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

The storm damaged water facilities in Wakayama, making water another priority on the relief missions, Kyodo reported Wednesday.

Yomiuri reported in Wakayama alone, which accounted for most of the death toll, about 4,400 people remained stranded, while another 4,100 people were isolated in Nara Prefecture.

"A mud slide came very close to my neighborhood, so I ran as fast as I could up a hill behind my house," a 62-year-old farmer told the newspaper. "We were cut off for two days, and I was worried the whole time."

In Wakayama, a flooded river struck the town of Nachi Katsuura, creating mudslides that buried several homes, CNN reported, quoting local officials.

"The most urgent task is to rescue people," said Wakayama Gov. Yoshinobu Nisaka, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported. "And then to repair infrastructures to restore the normal life of local residents."

At least 15,000 households remained without power as about 1,000 utility employees worked to repair downed power lines.

"Lack of power makes it difficult to conduct relief work in many places, while the blockage of roads makes power resumption hard," Nisaka said.