KAGOSHIMA: A powerful typhoon lashed Japan’s mainland on 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 8 pm, according to Japan’s Meteorological Agency.
Trami, with maximum gusts of 216 kilometres 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 ricefield.
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 2 pm, 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 said.
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 on 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. — AFP
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