9.0m people told to evacuate as super typhoon hits Japan
Country to experience extensive flooding, landslides
Tuesday, 20 September 2022
TOKYO, Sept 19 (BBC/AP): Nine million people have been told to evacuate their homes as Japan is battered by one of the worst typhoons the country has ever seen.
The super typhoon Nanmadol has caused one death and almost 70 injuries.
It hit Japan's most southerly island, Kyushu, on Sunday morning, and is forecast to pass over the main island of Honshu in the next few days.
Tens of thousands of people spent Sunday night in emergency shelters, and almost 350,000 homes are without power.
Transport and business has been disrupted, and the country is braced for extensive flooding and landslides.
Nanmadol has brought gusts of up to 234km/h (145mph), and some areas were forecast 400mm (16 inches) of rain in 24 hours.
Bullet train services, ferries, and hundreds of flights have been cancelled. Many shops and other businesses have closed, and sandbags have been put in place to protect some properties.
The typhoon made landfall near the city of Kagoshima, on the southern tip of Japan's most southerly island, Kyushu, on Sunday morning.
A river in Kyushu has burst its banks.
State broadcaster NHK said one man was killed when his car was caught in a flooded river, and firefighters were investigating whether a person had been inside a hut buried in a landslide.
Local video footage shows roofs ripped off buildings and billboards toppled over.
The storm is forecast to turn east and pass over Japan's main island of Honshu before moving out to sea by Wednesday. The capital, Tokyo, has experienced heavy rain, with the Tozai underground line suspended because of flooding.
A level-five alert, the highest on Japan's disaster warning scale, has been issued for more than 500,000 people in the Kagoshima, Miyazaki, Oita, Kumamoto and Yamaguchi areas.
Residential streets were flooded with muddy water from rivers, and swathes of homes lost power after Typhoon Nanmadol made landfall in the Kyushu region Sunday then weakened to a tropical storm.
A man was found dead early Monday in his car that was sunk in water on a farm, said Yoshiharu Maeda, a city hall official in charge of disasters at Miyakonojo, Miyazaki prefecture. Separately, one person was missing after a cottage was caught in a landslide, according to a Miyazaki prefectural official.
Nanmadol has sustained winds blowing at 108 kilometers per hour (67 mph) and gusts up to 162 kilometers (100 miles) per hour, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Tens of thousands of people spent the night at gymnasiums and other facilities in a precautionary evacuation of vulnerable homes.
More than 60 people were injured, including those who fell down in the rain or were hit by shards of glass, according to Japanese media reports.
Torrential winds smashed signboards. A construction crane snapped and a window at a pachinko parlor was shattered in Kagoshima city, southwestern Japan.