Heavy Rain Pounds Japan, Storm Makes Landfall
Date: 18-Aug-06
Country: JAPAN
Wukong -- meaning Monkey King, a legendary Chinese hero -- was about 40 km (25 miles) south-southwest of the city of Kumamoto as of 7:55 a.m. (2255 GMT), some 900 km (560 miles) southwest of Tokyo in a largely rural area of the island of Kyushu.
The storm was moving northwest at 15 km (9 miles) an hour, with winds near its centre of up to 83 km (52 miles) an hour. It made landfall on Kyushu shortly after midnight.
Parts of Shikoku island were expected to get up to 500 mm (19.6 inches) of rain by Saturday morning, while Kyushu was likely to be hit by 400 mm (15.75 inch) of rain, swelling rivers and threatening landslides.
"The extreme slowness of this storm means that rain will be falling in the same places for an extended period of time, and caution must be taken about flooding," an official at the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Some ferry and train services were cancelled in Kyushu, along with a handful of domestic flights and two international flights, NHK public television said.
The Tropical Storm risk (www.tropicalstormrisk.com) Web site predicted that Wukong would weaken to a tropical depression on Friday, but the Meteorological Agency official said that was uncertain.
After crossing Kyushu, the storm is expected to keep heading north to the Korean peninsula.