A typhoon billed as the strongest to hit southern Japan in at least three decades lashed Okinawa with heavy rains and high winds yesterday. Six people were injured, a news report said.
Flights to and from Okinawa were canceled, while public trains and buses halted service as Typhoon Songda approached from the south.
Television footage showed seawater flooding the streets of coastal towns as waves crashed over protective embankments. The Meteorological Agency warned of high tides and said that seas around southwestern Japan would likely get increasingly rough.
Public broadcaster NHK reported six people were injured as the storm dumped heavy rains and unleashed powerful winds across the area.
By late afternoon, the typhoon was about 40km southeast of the Okinawan city of Nago and moving northwest, the agency said. It was expected to reach the main islands of Kyushu and Honshu today.
Songda is probably the strongest typhoon to lash Okinawa since the Meteorological Agency started keeping records for the prefecture in 1972, when the US returned the island to Japanese control after occupying it after World War II.
Last week, Typhoon Chaba plowed through Japan, killing at least nine as gusts knocked people over and high waves demolished coastal homes. Police said the storm injured 204 people and flooded more than 19,000 homes.
The Meteorological Agency said Songda was expected to pour 30cm of rain on the Okinawan and Amami islands within the next 24 hours.
Songda, which is named after a branch of Vietnam's Red River, had been heading west toward Taiwan before it changed course and veered north early yesterday, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said.
Taiwan could still suffer heavy rain, forecasters said, warning people in mountainous areas to watch out for flash floods and landslides. The nation is still recovering from flooding and mudslides triggered by Typhoon Aere, which killed more than 30 people and left several missing.
Another severe storm, Mindulle, ravaged central and southern Taiwan in July, killing 29 people.
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