Powerful Typhoon Haishen approaches Japan after earlier storm leaves several injured

[Gert van der Hoek]

Sep 4, 2020

A powerful typhoon approaching southwestern Japan has intensified into a dangerous storm, with officials warning of record rainfall, huge waves and high tides.

The approach of Typhoon Haishen comes after Typhoon Maysak left at least 20 injured in Kyushu before making landfall on the Korean Peninsula.



That storm caused widespread blackouts in Kyushu and led to the suspension of some bullet trains and flights in the region. In South Korea, the storm killed at least two people and caused widespread power outages, reports said.

Separately, the Japan Coast Guard said on Friday that it rescued a man likely to be a crew member from a capsized ship carrying cattle. The man was unconscious and transferred to the hospital, it added in a statement. He was found about 120 kilometers north-northwest of Amami Oshima island. A life jacket and a cattle carcass were collected in the area, it said.

The Coast Guard said earlier on Friday it was still searching for more than 40 crew members who went missing after the ship carrying cattle from New Zealand to China capsized.

Typhoon Haishen, forecast to near Okinawa by Sunday, has the potential to be even more dangerous. On Thursday, a Meteorological Agency official urged residents of Kyushu and Okinawa to brace for the storm.

The typhoon is projected to have an atmospheric pressure of 915 hectopascals at its center and winds of up to 288 kilometers per hour on Sunday, warranting a special alert, the weather agency official said. That strength would put it on par with a Category 5 hurricane. While the storm is expected to weaken slightly as it moves toward Kyushu and the Korean Peninsula, it will still be powerful and dangerous, forecasts show.

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Typhoon Haishen hits southern Japan with high winds, power outages

Storm expected to generate winds of up to 216 km/h

Sep 06, 2020

Typhoon Haishen battered Japan's southern mainland on Sunday with powerful winds and drenching rain, cutting power to tens of thousands of homes and prompting authorities to call for some 1.8 million people to evacuate.

Haishen was drawing closer to Japan's main southern island of Kyushu by Sunday night.

"This typhoon is headed toward and may potentially make landfall in Kyushu, bringing record rains, winds, waves and high tides," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a meeting with cabinet ministers earlier.

"I am asking that people exercise the utmost caution."

The typhoon was forecast to carry top sustained winds of up to 216 km/h by Monday, Japan's meteorological agency said.

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Heading for Korean peninsula


The typhoon was forecast to approach the Goto Islands west of Nagasaki around 3 a.m. local on Monday (2 p.m. ET on Sunday) and then move to the Korean peninsula, according to the meteorological agency.

One evacuation centre in Miyazaki reached capacity and stopped accepting evacuees as a precaution against the coronavirus, according to NHK.

Airlines have cancelled more than 500 flights departing from Okinawa and southern Japan, NHK said. Bullet train service in southern and western Japan was suspended, it said.