August 26 2012 Twin Cyclones Cat 4 and CAT 5 Pound Korea and Japan as Hurricane Isaac Intensifies in the Gulf of Mexico

Massive Typhoon Bolaven slams Okinawa, Japan and heads for Koreas

August 26, 2012 – JAPAN - A massive typhoon began to make landfall Sunday over Okinawa, bringing winds more ferocious than even the typhoon-weary Japanese island has seen in decades. It will likely be the strongest since 1956, said CNN International meteorologist Tom Sater. With a cloud field of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), Typhoon Bolaven is 20 times larger than Okinawa’s length. “It’s been very, very severe,” said storm chaser James Reynolds, on the northwestern coast of the island. Tree branches were flying through the air amid torrential rain, he said. The infrastructure on Okinawa is designed to withstand violent storms. “Everything’s made of solid concrete,” said Reynolds. “Utility poles are so wide you couldn’t even put your arms around them,” Reynolds said. “All the houses are built with concrete. There’s no such thing as a beach house in Okinawa because it would just get destroyed by a typhoon.” Still, the power was out where he was Sunday. On Sunday evening, Bolaven was carrying sustained winds of 213 kilometers (132 miles) per hour, with gusts reaching 259 kilometers per hour (161 mph) — the highest since Typhoon Naha in 1956.

Twin Cyclones Cat 4 and CAT 5 Pound China as Hurricane Isaac Intensifies in the Gulf of Mexico after dumping a deluge of rain over Haiti causing massive flooding.