TOKYO: Japan scrambled on Wednesday to evacuate passengers trapped at a major airport when a tanker slammed into its only access bridge during the most powerful typhoon to hit the country for 25 years.

Typhoon Jebi left a trail of destruction on Tuesday, killing 11 people and injuring hundreds more as it battered western Japan with ferocious winds and lashing rain.

Winds up to 216kms per hour ripped off roofs, overturned trucks and swept a 2,500-ton tanker into the bridge to Kansai International Airport, the region’s main international gateway and a national transport hub.

The damage to the bridge left the artificial island housing the airport temporarily cut off, stranding 3,000 travellers overnight as high waves flooded the runways and some buildings, knocking out the power.

On Wednesday boats began ferrying people out of the airport, and buses began to run on one side of the damaged bridge after safety inspections.

“We’re very sorry” that the passengers had to stay overnight in the airport, an airport official told a press conference. “We’ll transport all the travellers who wish to get out of the airport by the end of today, but we’ll continue the bus and ferry service tomorrow,” he said.

But the official added it was unclear when the airport, which operates over 400 flights a day, could be reopened, while Kyodo News said it could take up to a week.

“There were about 3,000 people stranded at the airport, but we think about 2,000 to 2,500 of them already got out. We think there are not many people left,” said a transport ministry official.Typhoon Jebi made landfall at midday on Tuesday and moved quickly over the mainland, smashing through the major manufacturing area around Osaka — Japan’s second city — wrecking infrastructure and destroying homes.

Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said 11 people had been killed and 470 injured. According to Kansai Electric, more than 400,000 households were still without power.

Economists said it was too early to gauge the storm’s impact on local industry, with much depending on how long the airport remained closed.

Japan is regularly hit by powerful typhoons in the summer and autumn, many of which cause flooding and landslides in rural areas.

And Jebi was far from the deadliest Japan has seen in recent years. In 2011 Typhoon Talas killed 82 people in the area, while in 2013 a storm that struck south of Tokyo left 40 people dead.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2018