Typhoon strikes central Japan, kills two

• Typhoon Talas hit central Japan on Saturday with heavy rain and strong winds.
• Two people died and tens of thousands of homes lost power.
• A record 417 mm (16.42 inches) of rain has fallen in Shizuoka city, southwest of the capital, Tokyo.

A typhoon hit central Japan on Saturday with heavy rain and strong winds. Two people died and tens of thousands of homes lost power, said Kyodo news agency

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said that since the rain started on Thursday, a record 417 mm (16.42 inches) of rain has fallen in Shizuoka city, which is southwest of the capital, Tokyo. This is a lot of rain.

It said that winds at the centre of Typhoon Talas were about 65 kilometres per hour (40 miles per hour), with gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour (56 miles per hour).

Kyodo said that a man in his 40s died in a landslide, and a man in his 30s was found dead after his car fell into a reservoir.

A power company, Chubu Electric Power Grid Co., said that power was cut to about 120,000 homes because a landslide had knocked down two power lines.

“We apologise deeply for the inconvenience caused by this power outage. The outage is being prolonged due to landslides, among other factors, but we are doing all we can to fix it as swiftly as possible,” the company said on Twitter.

By Saturday afternoon, power had been restored to most homes, but about 2,800 still didn’t have it. Kyodo says that Chubu Electric Power Grid estimated that it would take a few months to fix the pylons.

Even though the JMA changed the typhoon to an extratropical cyclone on Saturday morning, it predicted more heavy rain in Shizuoka and warned people to be careful because of landslides and flooding.

About 3,000 people in Yokohama, a city about 30 km south of Tokyo, were also told to leave their homes around noon on Saturday.

Typhoon Nanmadol, which hit Japan on Monday, was one of the biggest storms to hit the country in years. It killed at least two people and brought record rainfall and strong winds to the western part of the country.

Advertisement

Also Read

A powerful typhoon batters southern Japan

Typhoon Nanmadol is near the southern island of Yakushima. It is packing...