Update July 10 2014
Elaine Lies
ReutersWed, 09 Jul 2014 05:30 CDT
Damaged
cars and buildings are seen after a landslide caused by heavy rains due
to Typhoon Neoguri in Nagiso town, Nagano prefecture, in this photo
taken by Kyodo July 10, 2014.
Heavy rain battered a
wide swathe of Japan on Thursday, sending rivers over their banks and
setting off a landslide as a weakened but still dangerous storm made
landfall and headed east, leaving three people dead.
Neoguri, which first threatened Japan as a super typhoon this week, had
weakened to a tropical storm by the time it ploughed ashore on the
westernmost main island of Kyushu. But it was still packing wind
gusts of up to 126 kph (78 mph).
Heavy rains prompted the cancellation of hundreds of flights and trains
and closed schools. The storm also fed into a stalled seasonal rain
front, threatening flooding in distant regions.
***
Update 08:39 PM ET
Ripped
apart: The streets of Naha, on the southern Okinawa Island, were strewn
with debris as tree branches were ripped apart by Typhoon Neogrui
A powerful typhoon has pounded southern Japan as residents took refuge from destructive winds, towering waves and storm surges.
Airports closed and residents were evacuated from low-lying areas and
shorelines as Typhoon Neoguri was passing through the islands comprising
the southern Okinawa prefecture.
The storm has sustained winds of 108mph per hour and gusts up to 154mph, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Read More..
Related News:
More Related News:
July 2014 – TOKYO -
Japan’s weather agency on Monday issued emergency warnings to urge
people in the country’s southern islands to take maximum precautions as a
super typhoon described as a “once in decades storm” is set to rake the
Okinawa island chain with heavy rain and powerful winds. Typhoon
Neoguri was already gusting at more than 250 km an hour (150 mph) and
may pick up still more power as it moves northwest, growing into an
“extremely intense” storm by Tuesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency
(JMA) said. But it was not expected to be as strong as Typhoon Haiyan,
which killed thousands in the Philippines last year. The JMA issued
emergency storm and high sea warnings for Japan’s small southern island
of Miyakojima, some 300 km (188 miles) southwest of Okinawa island, and
for a smaller nearby islet. The agency said on Monday evening it also
planned to issue an emergency high sea warning for Okinawa island, host
to three-quarters of U.S. military facilities in Japan. “In these
regions, there is a chance of the kinds of storms, high seas, storm
surges and heavy rains that you’ve never experienced before,” a JMA
official told a news conference. “This is an extraordinary situation,
where a grave danger is approaching.” The storm was south of Okinawa but
moving northwest at 25 kph (16 mph) with sustained winds of 180 kph
(110 mph) by 7:00 p.m. (1000 GMT), the JMA said on its web site.
The JMA official urged
people in the target areas to evacuate early and take precautions.
Television showed fishermen winching their boats out of the water. There
are no nuclear plants on Okinawa, but there are two on Kyushu, Japan’s
westernmost main island that lies in the area through which the typhoon
is likely to pass, and one on Shikoku Island, which borders Kyushu and
could also be affected.All are halted in line with current
national policy. A spokeswoman at Kyushu Electric Power Co said there
were no specific plans related to this typhoon but the company had plans
in place year-round to protect the plants from severe weather. The
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, crippled by an earthquake and tsunami
in 2011, is on the other side of the country, which is likely to see
rain, at the worst. Keiji Furuya, state minister in charge of Disaster
Management, cancelled a planned trip to the United States. The commander
at Kadena Air Base, one of the largest U.S. military establishments on
Okinawa, warned that damaging winds were expected by early Tuesday. “I
can’t stress enough how dangerous this typhoon may be when it hits
Okinawa,” Brigadier General James Hecker wrote on the base’s Facebook
page on Sunday. “This is not just another typhoon.” Around two to four typhoons a year make landfall in Japan but they are unusual in July. -Yahoo
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks, Your Comment will appear within the next 24 hours...
Your comment is very much appreciated and helpful to our readership.
.... Morpheus