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A powerful typhoon barreled through southwestern Japan on Monday, unleashing torrential rains and lashing winds that killed at least two people, triggered floods, downed power lines and and saw millions advised to evacuate to safety.
After making landfall in Kagoshima Prefecture, Typhoon Nanmadol was heading on a northeast path along the west coast of Honshu. While the storm has weakened since making landfall late Sunday night, it is still expected to dump as much as 200 millimeters of rain in parts of the region, drenching major cities including Tokyo when people return to work Tuesday after a three-day weekend, the Meteorological Agency said.
At 10 p.m. Monday, the typhoon was traveling east-northeast over the Sea of Japan some 100 kilometers north-northwest of the city of Maizuru in Kyoto Prefecture, part of the western Kinki region, at a speed of 35 kilometers per hour. With a central atmospheric pressure of 980 hectopascals, the typhoon had a maximum wind speed of 30 meters per second and a maximum wind gust speed of 40 meters per second, the Meteorological Agency said.
At least two people were killed Monday when the storm ripped through the Kyushu region, with one of the fatalities being a man found in a car that had been submerged in Miyazaki Prefecture.
A 41-year-old man was also found dead in the prefecture after his mountainside cabin was destroyed by a mudslide, according to police and other sources.
“There have been mudslides several times around here. The soil is like clay so it collapses easily,” said a 78-year-old man who lives nearby in the town of Mimata, adding that the cabin had been constructed around a year ago.
Meanwhile, local authorities in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, are searching for an 82-year-old man who is feared to have fallen in a waterway.
At least 115 people have been injured, NHK said.
The typhoon triggered landslides, ripped siding off of buildings and downed electric lines. About 286,000 households were without electricity on Monday afternoon, down from some 340,000 households earlier on the day, the trade ministry said.
On Tuesday, the maximum wind gust speed is forecast to reach 40 meters per second in Chugoku and the central Hokuriku region, and 35 meters per second in Tokai, Kinki, Shikoku, Tohoku, the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, the eastern Kanto region and the central Koshin region.
Along coastlines, the maximum wave height is estimated at 8 meters in Kinki and Chugoku, 7 meters in Tokai and northern Kyushu, and 6 meters in Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto and Hokuriku.
In the 24 hours to midnight Tuesday, rainfall is forecast to total up to 200 millimeters in Tokai, up to 150 millimeters in Tohoku, Kanto, Koshin and Hokuriku, up to 120 millimeters in Hokkaido and up to 100 millimeters in Kinki.
Officials from the Meteorological Agency warned that in Miyazaki Prefecture, where some areas saw more rainfall in 24 hours than they normally receive in all of September, river levels were high.
Bd-pratidin English/Ishrar Tabassum
