Typhoon Faxai lashes Japanese capital

One dead, power, transport disrupted

TOKYO, Sept 9, (RTRS): One of the strongest typhoons to hit eastern Japan in recent years struck just east of the capital Tokyo on Monday, killing one woman, with record-breaking winds and stinging rain damaging buildings and disrupting transport.

More than 160 flights were cancelled and scores of train lines closed for hours, snarling the morning commute for millions in a greater Tokyo area with a population of some 36 million.

Direct train service between Narita airport and the capital remained severely limited into the evening, with thousands of irritated travellers packed into a key transport hub for both the Rugby World Cup starting later this month and next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

“They simply had no contingency plan ...,” one weary traveler who lives in Tokyo said of the scene, in which people crowded the exit areas and food ran out in airport stores.

“They let planes land ... and thousands of passengers were disgorged into an airport that was cut off – no buses, no JR trains. The only connection was a private train running every half hour half way to Tokyo.”

The man, who said he arrived just before 4 pm local time and only caught a bus at 7:30 pm after standing in line, added: “My wife said: what if this happens during the Olympics?”

Typhoon Faxai, a Lao woman’s name, slammed ashore near the city of Chiba shortly before dawn, bringing with it wind gusts of 207 kmh (128 mph), the strongest ever

ly running forward. Terrified people scattered, with some running into an elephant at the front of the procession. That elephant became violent and ran, pushing onlookers. A man riding on the elephant fell off and narrowly escaped being trampled.

Officials from two hospitals said Monday that 18 injured people received treatment and 16 had been discharged. Of the remaining two, one is being observed for possible abdominal damage and the other is being treated for an injured ear, they said.

Ornately decorated elephants are a major attraction in Sri Lankan Buddhist pageants. Wealthy families own captive elephants as recorded in Chiba, national broadcaster NHK said.

A woman in her fifties was confirmed dead after she was found in a Tokyo street and taken to hospital. Footage from a nearby security camera showed she had been smashed against a building by strong winds, NHK reported.

Another woman in her 20s was rescued from her house in Ichihara, east of Tokyo, after it was partly crushed when a metal pole from a golf driving range fell on it. She was seriously injured.

“There was a huge grinding noise, I couldn’t figure out what it was. Then I looked up and saw a big hole in the roof, but I was so keyed up I couldn’t figure out what had happened,” a neighbour said.

Landslides

Some minor landslides occurred and a bridge was washed away, while as many as 930,000 houses lost power at one point, NHK said, including the entire city of Kamogawa. But the number of homes without power had dropped to 840,000 by early Monday afternoon, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.

Some concrete electric poles were snapped off at their bases, while electricity towers in Chiba were toppled over. Some panels of a floating solar power plant southeast of Tokyo were on fire.

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency said a cooling tower at its research reactor at Oarai, which has not been in operation since 2006 and is set to be decommissioned, had fallen, but there was no radiation leakage, impact a symbol of their prosperity, pride and nobility and send their elephants to participate in pageants around the country.

Some Buddhist temples also own elephants. (AP)

Afghans brace for violence:

Afghans braced for a possible new wave of Taleban violence on Monday after President Donald Trump abruptly called off talks with the insurgent group, which vows to continue its fight against what it calls “foreign occupation.”

Trump’s surprise weekend announcement came shortly before a string of highly on workers or the surrounding environment.

A Sony Corp spokesman said operations at its plant in Kisarazu, southeast of Tokyo, were suspended due to power outages. The company could not say when the plant, which assembles PlayStation gaming consoles, would reopen.

Two Nissan factories west of Tokyo, including its Oppama plant, suspended operations due to flooding, NHK said.

About four to five typhoons make landfall in Japan every year, but it is unusual for them to do so near Tokyo. NHK said Faxai was the strongest storm in the Tokyo area in several years.

Streets normally busy with commuters walking or bicycling were deserted, with winds just east of Tokyo shaking buildings.

Metal signs were torn from buildings, trucks overturned, the metal roof of a petrol station torn off and glass display cases destroyed, scattering sidewalks with broken glass.

Trees were uprooted throughout the metropolitan area, some falling on train tracks to further snarl transport.

Some 2,000 people were ordered to leave their homes at one point because of the danger of landslides, NHK said.

Parts of the high-speed Tokaido Shinkansen train line were halted but service resumed after several hours. It took hours for other lines to resume, packing stations with impatient commuters fanning themselves in the humid air. sensitive days in Afghanistan, including Monday’s anniversary of the killing of anti-Taleban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, the major Shiite Muslim holy day of Ashoura on Tuesday and Wednesday’s 9/11 anniversary.

It was not immediately clear whether the US-Taleban talks will resume and when on ending nearly 18 years of fighting.

A roadside bomb blast in the capital, Kabul, on Monday wounded three civilians, said Firdaus Faramarz, spokesman for the city’s police chief. The target was unknown, he said, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The local affiliate of the Islamic State group also carries out attacks in the capital, often targeting the minority Shiite community. The blast was not in a predominantly Shiite area.

The Taleban claimed attacks on at least two districts of northeastern Takhar province overnight, with no immediate reports of casualties. A heavy gunbattle continued in the district of Khwaja Ghar but security reinforcements had arrived, said Khalil Aser, spokesman for the provincial police chief.

The Taleban attacked three provincial capitals earlier this month, even while finalizing a deal with the US to end nearly 18 years of fighting. The group has defended the attacks, saying they were meant to strengthen its negotiating position.

The main highway between Kabul and the capital of the northern province of Baghlan remained blocked, a week after the Taleban attacked Puli Khumri, and sporadic gunbattles continued, said Jawad Basharat, spokesman for the provincial police chief.

Violence continued on all sides in what was the world’s deadliest conflict last year.

In northern Sari Pul province, at least five women were wounded in an airstrike by the Afghan air force late Sunday, said Mohammad Ayub Ansari, district chief in Gospandi district. (AP)