A storm yesterday slammed into Japan, churning across western areas already hard hit by floods and landslides earlier this month and injuring at least 21 people.
Typhoon Jongdari, with winds of up to 180kph, made landfall at Ise in Mie Prefecture at about 1am, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
More than 170 domestic flights were canceled and train services disrupted.
Photo: AFP
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the storm could continue to bring heavy rain even after the center had passed by.
“Get hold of information on damage, cooperate closely with municipal offices and make utmost efforts to help evacuate local residents,” he told government officials.
The typhoon weakened after making landfall and was downgraded to a tropical storm, but many prefectures stayed on alert.
“We have been on emergency alert the whole time since the rain disaster” in early July, Okayama Prefecture crisis management official Koji Kunitomi said. “Fortunately, so far, we haven’t seen new flooding.”
After unleashing torrential rain over eastern and Japan, the storm moved west and then south yesterday.
TV footage showed high waves smashing onto rocks and seawalls southwest of Tokyo, and trees buffeted by strong winds and heavy rain.
Waves late on Saturday shattered a window of an ocean-view restaurant at a hotel in the resort town of Atami southwest of Tokyo.
“We didn’t expect this could happen... Waves gushed into the restaurant as the window broke, but we are grateful that customers followed evacuation instructions,” an official at the hotel told reporters.
“Fortunately no one was seriously hurt,” she said, adding that five people suffered cuts from broken glass as they fled.
The storm moved across the western region of Chugoku, where record rainfall early this month unleashed flooding and landslides that killed about 220 people.
It was Japan’s worst weather-related disaster in decades and thousands of those affected are still in temporary shelters or damaged homes.
The storm was hitting Kyushu late yesterday.
The authorities in Kyushu urged residents to evacuate before rain intensifies.
The weather agency warned of heavy rain, landslides, strong winds and high waves.
In Japan, evacuation orders are not mandatory and people often remain at home, only to become trapped later by rapidly rising water or sudden landslides.
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