KAGOSHIMA, Japan, Sept 30, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A powerful typhoon lashed
Japan’s mainland Sunday after injuring dozens on outlying islands, bringing
transport grinding to a halt and triggering warnings of fierce winds,
torrential rain, landslides and floods.
Typhoon Trami has already snarled travel in the world’s third-biggest
economy, with bullet train services suspended, more than 1,000 flights
cancelled and Tokyo’s evening train services scrapped.
The storm made landfall at Tanabe city, south of the western city of
Osaka, around 8pm (1100 GMT), according to Japan’s Meteorological Agency.
Trami, with maximum gusts of 216 kilometres (134 miles) per hour, was
expected to pass over most of the archipelago, weakening slightly but causing
extreme weather into Monday, forecasters said.
In total, 75 people have sustained minor injuries — mainly cuts from
shattered glass — and one woman was reported missing in the Miyazaki region,
which was drenched by record rainfall and suffered localised flooding.
According to local media, the woman in her 60s was swept away by gusts
in a gutter while working with her husband in their rice field.
Nationwide, authorities have issued non-compulsory evacuation advisories
to 1.5 million residents, according to public broadcaster NHK, and officials
urged people across the country to stay indoors.
Nearly 500,000 households in the western region of Kyushu and Okinawa
have lost power, local utilities said.
– ‘Enormous wind’ –
Violent gusts and heavy rain made it impossible to venture outside, said
Yuji Ueno, an official in the town of Shirahama in Wakayama prefecture near
Tanabe city.
“From around 2pm, we saw incredible winds and rain. I stepped outside
the city hall in the afternoon, and the rain was swirling in very strong
wind. Enormous wind.”
“It was difficult to stay standing. It was very scary,” Ueno told AFP.
As the typhoon barrelled east, rail authorities took the highly unusual
step of cancelling evening train services in Tokyo, one of the world’s
busiest networks, urging passengers to shelter indoors when the storm hits.
The typhoon is not expected to hit the capital head-on but strong winds
and heavy rain are still feared from late Sunday. Some businesses were
already putting up shutters and hunkering down.
Trami is the latest in a string of extreme natural events in Japan,
which has suffered typhoons, flooding, earthquakes and heatwaves in recent
months, claiming scores of lives and causing extensive damage.
Classed as a “strong” typhoon, Trami pounded Kagoshima on the western
tip of Japan early Sunday, causing minor injuries — such as cuts from broken
windows and people knocked over by gusts.
– ‘It’s really deserted’ –
Osaka lay close to the path of the storm and its Kansai Airport, which
is situated on reclaimed land offshore and suffered extensive damage in a
storm earlier in September, closed two runways.
Officials piled up sandbags to avoid a repeat of flooding seen during
the previous storm. Speaking to AFP from a hotel near the airport, British
businessman Richard Swart said: “It’s actually quite warm outside, very windy
and with very heavy rain.”
“The airport is closed. There are very few people around and all the
shops are shut. It’s really deserted,” added Swart, 56, from Durham in
northern England.
Even from the safety of the hotel, he said he could hear the wind
“howling” outside.
The Japanese meteorological agency warned the typhoon would bring strong
winds and downpours, which could trigger landslides and floods as well as
lightning strikes and tornados across the nation.
Cities in the expected path of the typhoon were already taking
precautions.
East Japan Railway stopped all train services in and around Tokyo at
8pm, shortly before the typhoon was to draw near the Japanese capital.
Some western regions are still recovering from Typhoon Jebi in early
September, the most powerful typhoon to strike the country in a quarter of a
century. It claimed 11 lives and shut down Kansai Airport.
Deadly record rainfall hit western Japan earlier this year and the
country sweltered through one of the hottest summers on record.
Also in September a magnitude-6.6 earthquake rocked the northern island
of Hokkaido, sparking landslides and leaving more than 40 people dead.