TOKYO, Sept 6: A typhoon pummelled southwestern Japan on Tuesday, causing floods and landslides that left at least six dead and 13 missing, and paralyzing transport. Officials ordered more than 100,000 people to flee their homes.
At about 2pm, the eye of the typhoon made landfall at Isahaya near Nagasaki on mountainous Kyushu, Japan’s third-biggest main island and home to about 10 per cent of the country’s almost 130 million population.
A total of about 110,000 residents of Kyushu and the neighbouring main island of Shikoku were told to evacuate, Kyodo news agency said, while more than 16,000 left voluntarily.
Six people were killed, 13 were missing and 81 were injured, public broadcaster NHK reported.
A 75-year-old man died when a landslide crushed his house in Miyazaki on the southwestern island of Kyushu, NHK said.
Winds had weakened slightly but were still gusting at up to 126km an hour at the storm’s centre, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.
Troops were sent to help evacuate residents of Takaoka-cho in Kyushu after the governor of Miyazaki prefecture sought assistance, Japan government spokesman Hiroyuki Hosoda said.
“There is expected to be further damage due to the typhoon so all agencies and ministries are joining together to respond,” Hosoda told reporters.
The typhoon was moving north at 30km an hour but was forecast to swing east and beat a path up the Japan Sea coast, bringing rain and strong winds to western Japan and parts of South Korea before hitting the northernmost main Japanese island of Hokkaido.
It was not expected to hit China.
Airlines in South Korea cancelled dozens of domestic and international flights on Tuesday because of the weather.—Reuters
