Typhoon Shanshan In Japan Kills 3 People, 5 Minor Injuries

UNSPLASH/NASA ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - At least three people died in southwest Japan when Typhoon Shanshan hit Kagoshima prefecture, Thursday, August 29. Typhoons are also followed by heavy rain and strong winds and disrupt air traffic and turn off electricity to more than a quarter of a million households. Reporting from Reuters, major automakers including Toyota and Nissan opened new tabs suspending operations in some or all of their domestic factories due to storms. Typhoon, with gusts of up to 55 meters per second (198 km per hour / 123 mph), landed near the town of Satsumassendai, located on Kyushu island in the southwest of the country on Thursday morning, weather agency said. Authorities warned the storm could be one of the strongest ever to hit the region, and local governments have issued evacuation orders for millions of people in several prefectures. Three people were killed, one missing, two seriously injured, and five minor injuries from the typhoon, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said. "As this typhoon moves slowly, the total amount of rain can become rather large," Hayashi told a regular news conference. Footage from NHK public broadcaster showed tearing walls and window windows of a broken building in Miyazaki city in southern Kyushu, with objects strewn on the road or hanging on an electric pole. More than 250,000 households in seven prefectures experienced power outages at 9: 00 a.m. on Thursday (0000 GMT), according to Kyushu Electric Power Co. After floating above Kyushu for the next few days, the storm is expected to approach the central and eastern regions, including the capital Tokyo, around the weekend, weather agencies said.

Airlines, including ANA Holdings (9202.T), opened a new tab and Japan Airlines (9201.T), opened a new tab, having announced the cancellation of more than 600 domestic flights. Train services have been suspended in many areas of Kyushu. Typhoon Shanshan is the latest bad weather system to hit Japan, following Typhoon Ampil, which also caused power outages and evacuations, earlier this month.