Japan warned today , that “extremely powerful“ a typhoon approaching the large southern island of Kyushu will cause extremely bad weather. Meanwhile, three people are still missing after a landslide, reports France Presse, quoted by BTA.
„Shanshan“ it is now 120 kilometers from the island of Yakushima, with gusts reaching 252 km/h, and is headed for Kyushu, which has a population of 12.5 million.
„We can expect strong winds, high waves and storms with a force many people have never experienced,”, government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
The typhoon has already brought heavy rain to large areas of Japan, and late last night a landslide swept away a house containing five members of a family in the city of Gamagori, located on the Pacific coast in the center of the country.
Two people were rescued, but two others, in their seventies, and a man in his thirties are still missing, a Gamagori representative told AFP.
500mm of rain is expected to fall over southern Kyushu in 24 hours by Thursday morning, followed by another 600mm by Friday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.
Local authorities issued evacuation notices for 810,000 people in central Shizuoka Prefecture, on the main island of Honshu, because of heavy rains, and for another 56,000 in Kyushu's Kagoshima, the disaster management agency said.
The weather agency may issue a special heavy rain warning for Kagoshima later today, an official said.
„It is necessary to be in maximum readiness,”, he said at a morning briefing for journalists.
The airline “Japan Airlines“ (Japan Airlines) canceled 112 domestic flights and six international flights today, and “All Nippon Airways” (All Nippon Airways, ANA) announced that it had canceled 112 domestic flights between Wednesday and Friday.
Trains between Tokyo and Fukuoka, Kyushu's most populous city, may also be canceled depending on weather conditions this week, other operators said.
In the middle of August, typhoon “Ampil“ caused the cancellation of numerous trains and more than 650 domestic and international flights without causing serious injuries or major damage as it moved up the Pacific coast near the Tokyo area.
Typhoons in the region are forming closer to the coast, intensifying faster and staying over land longer due to climate change, according to a study published last month, AFP noted.