NU Online News Service, Sept. 8, 1:21 p.m. EST

Typhoon Talas could cost insurers as much as $600 million as officials search for victims of the weekend storm that slammed into western Japan and claimed more than 50 lives.

The catastrophe-modeling firm AIR Worldwide put out a report yesterday saying that insured losses from Typhoon Talas could cost between $150 million and $600 million.

The storm came ashore as a tropical storm on Saturday morning, striking Kochi Prefecture on Japan's Shikoku Island, says Peter Sousounis, principal scientist at AIR Worldwide.

“Overnight on Saturday, the slow-moving storm crossed the southern island of Shikoku and the central part of the main island of Honshu, passing near the cities of Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto, all the while delivering heavy rain,” says Sousounis. “Record rainfall fell on central and western Japan and wide sections of the country experienced damaging winds.”

The storm moved offshore into the Sea of Japan by Monday, he notes.

Due to Talas's unexpected slow forward motion across Japan, precipitation and the resultant flooding were more significant than had been forecast last week, AIR says.

The storm was “unusually large” AIR went on to say, with tropical storm force winds extending outwards up to 373 miles dumping 4-8 inches of rain on much of Japan. Up to 63 inches fell in the mountains of the prefecture of Nara.

According to press reports the storm has claimed more than 50 lives and as many as 50 others remain missing from heavy flooding.

AIR says Talas is the season's 12th named storm, seventh severe tropical storm and fifth typhoon of the 2011 Pacific typhoon season.