Already damage. It was on Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu that Typhoon Shanshan, expected to be the country’s most powerful of the year, made landfall on Thursday, August 29, at around 8 a.m. local time. (1:00 a.m. Paris time), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) announced.
According to operators, 254,610 households were left without electricity at the start of the day in the region due to the passage of Shanshan, which is accompanied by heavy rains and gusts of wind up to 252 kilometers per hour.
In response to this situation, authorities on Wednesday issued their maximum “special alert” for violent winds, heavy rains and immersion waves.
“Please exercise extreme vigilance for severe storms, waves and high tides in Kagoshima, and for landslides, flooding in low-lying areas and river overflows in southern Kyushu.”the JMA warned early on Thursday. “Please also note that the risk of disasters due to heavy rains may increase rapidly in western Japan between now and Friday.”he added.
Fourteen Toyota factories closed
Two departments in southern Kyushu island are expected to receive nearly half their annual rainfall in 48 hours. Kagoshima and Miyazaki are expected to see 500 mm of rain in the 24 hours through Thursday morning, followed by another 600 mm in the 24 hours through Friday morning, the JMA said.
Auto giant Toyota announced Wednesday that it would suspend production at its 14 factories in Japan from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday evening.
Separately, three members of the same family died after a landslide buried their home in Gamagori, a town in central Aichi Prefecture, Kyodo news agency reported, citing local government officials. The dead included a couple in their 70s and their son in his 30s, while two women in their 40s were injured, the news agency said.
Hundreds of flights cancelled
Japan Airlines cancelled 172 domestic flights and six international flights on Wednesday and Thursday. Competitor All Nippon Airways announced it had cancelled 219 domestic flights and four international connections between Wednesday and Friday.
Fact Sheet
“Human warmth”
How to face the climate challenge? Every week, our best articles on the topic.
Record
The railway companies that operate the high-speed Shinkansen lines have already announced that trains could also be cancelled this week depending on weather conditions across the archipelago.
The typhoon is expected to move from west to east across Japan by the end of the week. Such storms are forming closer to the coast than before, intensifying more quickly and staying on land for longer due to climate change, according to a study released in July.
From August 15 to 17, another typhoon, Ampil, caused the cancellation of many trains and flights in Japan, but caused only injuries and minor damage along the Pacific coast off the Tokyo area.
