Five Killed as Typhoon Tears Across Southern Japan
Date: 31-Aug-04
Country: JAPAN
Four were missing, more than 350,000 households lost power at one point, and thousands of people were evacuated because of fears of flooding and landslides in areas hit by another typhoon two weeks ago.
Chaba, one of the strongest storms to hit Japan this year, at one point generated winds of up to 130 miles per hour, near the highest on record for the area, public broadcaster NHK said.
By evening it had weakened, but still had gusts of up to 78 miles an hour.
Kyushu, one of four of Japan's main islands, has so far suffered the worst damage. The island is home to a tenth of the country's population. Another 10,000 later lost power on neighboring Shikoku island.
More than 16,000 people had left their homes to wait out the storm in shelters as authorities warned of flooding and landslides, particularly in parts of Shikoku, which was hit hard by typhoon Megi two weeks ago.
The Meteorological Agency issued heavy rain and flood warnings for a wide area of southwestern Japan. Some 8 to 10 inches of rain was predicted to fall on some areas by Tuesday evening, NHK said.
An empty Vietnamese-flagged cargo ship ran aground near Shikoku and Japanese media said four crew members were missing, but the Japan Coast Guard could not immediately confirm this.
Television pictures showed people wading through knee-deep water in the streets Kagoshima city on the southern tip of Kyushu, while huge waves battered seaside houses.
The arrival of the storm coincides with the highest tides of the year, increasing concerns about flood damage near the coast.
One elderly man was shown in his flooded house after the roof had been ripped off, water dripping down behind him.
"Nothing like this has ever happened before," he told NHK.
DOZENS INJURED
Transport was severely disrupted, with hundreds of flights canceled in and out of southern Japan. Bullet train service to the region was also halted, ferry services were canceled, and sections of motorways were closed because of high winds.
Among the dead were an elderly man killed when he fell from the roof of a storehouse and another who fell from a ladder, local authorities said. Two more men died after their truck was washed away in a swollen river and a 51-year-old woman died when she fell from a roof.
About 73 people had been injured, NHK said.
In some areas of Kyushu, a mixed industrial-farming region, more than 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain fell in one hour.
The north-west Pacific is regularly hit by typhoons in the summer and autumn, and Chaba - which means "hibiscus" in Thai - is the 16th to affect the region this year.
Chaba is also among the most powerful storms to have formed in the western Pacific this year. Chaba rapidly developed into a maximum category 5 storm last week, meaning sustained winds in excess of 240 kph, before weakening as it zeroed in on Japan.
Another storm, typhoon Songda, is strengthening and also appears to be heading for southern Japan in the next week.
Chaba is expected to move along Japan's western coast over the next two days on a path similar to that of typhoon Megi, which set off landslides and flooding that killed 10 people in Japan and at least three in South Korea earlier this month. At 7 p.m. (6 a.m. EDT), the center of the typhoon was northwest of the city of Iwakuni, about 580 miles southwest of Tokyo, the Meteorological Agency said. It was moving north-northeast at 40 km per hour.
Two oil refiners said they had halted crude oil unloading and product shipments because of the storm.
Japan's biggest refiner, Nippon Oil Corp., said it had stopped berthing operations at its western Japan refineries at Mizushima and Marifu because of high waves.
The two refineries have adequate crude stocks and Nippon Oil did not expect any shortage, a company spokesman said.
Showa Shell Sekiyu KK said it had stopped berthing operations at its Yokkaichi refinery and at a Yamaguchi prefecture refinery
