Thousands of people were in a shelter in Southwest Japan on Sunday when the strong Typhoon Nanmadol spinning towards the region, encouraging the authorities to urge nearly three million residents to evacuate.
The Japanese Meteorology Agency (JMA) has issued a rare “special warning” for the Kagoshima region in the South Kyushu Prefecture – a warning issued only when predicting conditions that are seen once in a few decades.
On Sunday morning, 25,680 households in Kagoshima and neighboring Miyazaki were without electricity, while regional train, flight and ferry services were canceled to the storm, the local utility and transportation services said.
JMA has warned that the region can face the dangers that have never happened before “from strong winds, storms and heavy rain.
“Maximum attention is needed,” said Ryuta Kurora, Head of JMA estimated unit on Saturday. “This is a very dangerous typhoon.”
“The wind will be so fierce so that some houses may collapse,” Kurora told reporters, also warning floods and landslides.
So far, 2.9 million residents in Kyushu have been issued with evacuation warnings, according to the Government Fire and Disaster Management Agency, and Kagoshima officials said more than 8,500 people were already in a local shelter on Sunday morning.
Evacuation warnings call for people to move to shelter or alternative accommodations that can withstand extreme weather.
But they are not mandatory, and during the past extreme weather events, authority has struggled to convince residents to take shelter quickly.
Kurora urges people to evacuate before the worst storm arrives and warns that even in solid buildings residents need to take precautions.
‘Highest caution possible’
“Please move to a sturdy building before strong winds begin to blow and stay away from the window even in a sturdy building,” he told a press conference late at night.
On Sunday morning, bullet train operations in the area were stopped, along with the regional train line, and NHK said at least 510 flights had been canceled.
“The southern part of the Kyushu region may see a hard type of wind, high waves and high waves that have never been experienced before,” JMA said, Sunday, urged residents to exercise “Attention to the high as possible.”
On the ground, a Kagoshima prefecture official told AFP that there were no reports so far injured or structural damage but his condition worsened.
“The rain and the wind are getting stronger. The rain is so heavy that you cannot really see what is out there. Looks white,” he said.
At 9:00 am (0000 GMT), the typhoon is 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of Yakushima Island Japan, and packs up to 252 kilometers per hour.
It is expected to land in Kyushu on Sunday night, before turning northeast and sweeping the main island of Japan until Wednesday morning.
Japan is currently in the typhoon season and faces around 20 storms like that, routinely sees heavy rain that causes landslides or flash floods.
In 2019, Typhoon Hagibis crashed into Japan for hosting the Rugby World Cup, claiming the lives of more than 100 people.
A year earlier, Typhoon Jebi closed Kansai Airport in Osaka, killing 14 people.
And in 2018, floods and landslides killed more than 200 people in Western Japan during the country’s annual rainy season.
Scientists say climate change increases the severity of storms and causes extreme weather such as heat waves, drought and flash floods become more frequent and intense.
