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Japan issues warning as Typhoon Jebi makes landfall

Tuesday, 04 September 2018 7:13 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 04 September 2018 7:16 AM ]

Port officers close the breakwater gates in Nagoya, Japan, on September 4, 2018, as Typhoon Jebi hits the west of the country and moves northward. (Photo by AFP)

Japan issued evacuation advisories for more than one million people and canceled hundreds of flights in the face of extremely strong winds and heavy rain as typhoon Jebi made landfall on its west coast on Tuesday.

Jebi — whose name means "swallow" in Korean — was briefly a super typhoon and is the latest harsh weather to hit Japan this summer following rains, landslides, floods, and record-breaking heat that killed hundreds of people. There were scattered reports of mild injuries as the typhoon made landfall.

Tides in some areas were the highest since a typhoon in 1961, the NHK public television said, with flooding covering the runways at Kansai International Airport in Osaka.

The storm made landfall on Shikoku, the smallest main island, around noon. It raked across the western part of the largest main island, Honshu, near the city of Kobe, several hours later.

Evacuation advisories were issued for more than one million people as the wind and rain began picking up, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. Wind gusts of up to 208 km/h were recorded in one part of Shikoku, with forecasts for gusts as high as 216 km/h.

Television footage showed waves pounding the coastline, sheet metal tumbling across a parking lot, and a truck turned on its side.

This handout photo, released by the Kagawa Prefectural Police on September 4, 2018 and received via Jiji Press, shows a truck sitting at an angle after being blown over by strong winds caused by Typhoon Jebi, on the Seto Ohashi Bridge in Sakade, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. (Via AFP)

Around 100 mm of rain drenched one part of the tourist city of Kyoto in an hour, with as much as 500 mm set to fall in some areas in the 24 hours to noon on Wednesday.

Video posted on Twitter showed a small part of the roof of Kyoto train station falling to the ground.

More than 700 flights were canceled, along with scores of ferries and trains, NHK said. Shinkansen bullet train services between Tokyo and Hiroshima were suspended and Universal Studios Japan, a popular amusement park near Osaka, was closed.

Some 177,000 customers across western Japan lost power, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry said. Toyota Motor Corp said it was canceling the night shift at some 14 plants.

The capital, Tokyo, will be far from the center of the storm but was set for heavy rains and high winds by the end of Tuesday.

Jebi's course has brought it close to parts of western Japan hit by rains and flooding that killed more than 200 people in July. However, it was set to speed up after making landfall, minimizing the amount of rain that will fall in one place.

(Source: Reuters)

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