Japan on Wednesday braced for the most powerful typhoon of the year, prompting authorities to advise thousands of people to evacuate their homes and issue the highest warning for winds and storm surges for the southern main island of Kyushu.
“Typhoon Shanshan is expected to approach southern Kyushu at very strong force by Thursday and may make landfall,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
“It is expected that there will be violent winds, high waves and storm surges that people have never experienced before,” said Hayashi, the top government spokesman.
The storm brought winds of up to 252 kilometres (157 miles) per hour and widespread heavy rain, forcing auto giant Toyota to suspend production at all 14 of its factories.
Two people were missing after a landslide buried a house containing five members of a family in the city of Gamagori in central Aichi Prefecture on Wednesday.
Rescuers worked around the clock and on Wednesday afternoon they pulled out a woman in her 70s.
“She was unable to breathe and was unconscious,” a Gamagori official told AFP. They are still searching for a man in his 70s and another man in his 30s.
For southern Kyushu, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) forecast 1,100 millimetres (43 inches) of rainfall in the 48 hours until Friday morning, about half the annual average for the region that includes the Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures.
The JMA also issued its highest “special warning” for violent storms, waves, and high waves for parts of the Kagoshima region of Kyushu, and officials there advised 56,000 people to evacuate.
Video aired on public broadcaster NHK TV showed tiles blown off roofs, windows broken and trees fallen.
“The roof of our carport was completely blown off. I wasn’t home when it happened, but my children said they felt the tremor so strongly that they thought there was an earthquake,” a Miyazaki local told NHK.
“I was amazed. It was totally beyond our imagination,” she said.
JMA chief forecaster Satoshi Sugimoto told a news conference that the warnings indicated “the potential for this typhoon to cause a major disaster is very high.”
Japan Airlines cancelled 172 domestic flights and six international flights scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, while ANA cancelled 219 domestic flights and four international flights scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Approximately 25,000 people were affected by the cancellations.
Kyushu Railway said it would suspend some Shinkansen bullet train services between Kumamoto and Kagoshima Chuo from Wednesday night and warned of the possibility of further disruptions.
Other operators said trains between Tokyo and Kyushu’s most populous city, Fukuoka, may also be cancelled this week depending on weather conditions.
The incident in Shanshan comes after Typhoon Ampil, which disrupted hundreds of flights and trains this month.
Despite the heavy rainfall, it caused only minor injuries and damage.
Ampil’s arrival came just days after Tropical Storm Maria brought record rainfall to northern regions.
Climate change is causing hurricanes in the region to form closer to coasts, intensify more quickly and stay over land longer, according to a study released last month.
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