Thousands told to evacuate as ‘extremely strong’ Typhoon Shanshan nears Japan

TOKYO: Japan braced on Wednesday (Aug 28) for its strongest typhoon of the year, with authorities advising tens of thousands of people to evacuate and issuing the highest warning level for wind and storm surges on the main southern island of Kyushu.
“Typhoon Shanshan is expected to approach southern Kyushu with extremely strong force through Thursday and it may make landfall,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
“It is expected that violent winds, high waves and storm surge at levels that many people have never experienced before may occur,” said Hayashi, the top government spokesman.
The approach of the storm, packing gusts of up to 252kmh and already bringing widespread heavy rain, prompted auto giant Toyota to suspend production at all 14 of its Japanese factories.
Two people remained unaccounted for on Wednesday after a landslide buried a house with five family members inside – a man and a woman in their 70s, another two women who are in their 40s and a second man who is in his 30s – in Gamagori, a city in central Aichi prefecture.
After around-the-clock recovery efforts, the three women were rescued. The woman in her 70s “wasn’t breathing and was unconscious” when she was rescued, a Gamagori official told AFP.
Rescuers are still searching for the two men.
Kyushu is home to 12.5 million people.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) predicted 1,100mm of precipitation for southern Kyushu in the 48 hours to Friday morning.
The JMA also issued its highest “special warning” for violent storms, waves and high tides in parts of the Kagoshima region of Kyushu, with authorities there advising 56,000 people to evacuate.
In the central prefecture of Shizuoka on Honshu, meanwhile, evacuation advisories were issued by local governments to 810,000 people because of the rain.
The warnings indicate that the “possibility that a major disaster prompted by (the typhoon) is extremely high”, Satoshi Sugimoto, chief forecaster of JMA, told a news conference.
Footage on NHK TV showed roof tiles being blown off houses, broken windows and felled trees.
Japan Airlines cancelled 172 domestic flights and six international flights scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, while ANA nixed 219 domestic flights and four international ones on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
The cancellations affected around 25,000 people.
Several Singapore Airlines flights between Osaka and Singapore have also been cancelled.
Kyushu Railway said it would suspend some Shinkansen bullet train services between Kumamoto and Kagoshima Chuo from Wednesday night and warned of further possible disruption.
Trains between Tokyo and Fukuoka, the most populous city on Kyushu, may also be cancelled depending on weather conditions this week, other operators said.
Shanshan comes in the wake of Typhoon Ampil, which disrupted hundreds of flights and trains this month.
Despite dumping heavy rain, it caused only minor injuries and damage.
Ampil came days after Tropical Storm Maria brought record rains to northern areas.
Typhoons in the region have been forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change, according to a study released last month.