JEBI WHIPS UP CHAOS IN KOBE

1 million advised to evacuate, Kansai Airport closed due to flooded runway

JAPAN issued evacuation advisories for more than a million people and cancelled hundreds of flights as Typhoon Jebi sliced across the west yesterday, cutting power, overturning cars and killing at least six people.

Jebi, or “swallow” in Korean, was briefly a super typhoon and is the most powerful storm to hit Japan in 25 years following rains, landslides, floods and recordbreaking heat that killed hundreds of people this summer.

Television footage showed waves pounding the coastline, sheet metal tumbling across a parking lot, cars turned on their sides, dozens of used cars on fire at an exhibition area, and a big Ferris wheel spinning around in the strong wind.

As the typhoon made landfall, a man, 71, was found dead under a collapsed warehouse, likely due to strong wind, and a man in his 70s fell from the roof of a house and died, NHK television reported, adding more than 90 were injured. NHK and broadcaster TBS put the death toll at six.

Tides in some areas were the highest since a typhoon in 1961, with one runway flooded at Kansai airport near Osaka, forcing the closure of the airport and leaving 3,000 tourists stranded.

The strong winds and high tides sent a 2,591-tonne tanker crashing into a bridge connecting the airport, built on a man-made island in a bay, to the mainland.

The bridge was damaged and closed, but the tanker was empty and none of its crew was injured.

The storm made landfall on Shikoku, the smallest main island, around noon. It raked across the western part of the largest main island, Honshu, near the city of Kobe, several hours later before heading into the Sea of Japan in the evening.

Evacuation advisories were issued for more than a million people at one point.

Winds of up to 208kph were recorded in one part of Shikoku. Around 100mm of rain drenched the tourist city of Kyoto in an hour, with as much as 500mm set to fall in some areas today.

Nearly 800 flights were cancelled, along with scores of ferries and trains. Shinkansen bullet train services between here and Okayama were suspended and Universal Studios Japan, a popular amusement park near Osaka, was closed.

The capital here escaped the centre of the storm, but was set for heavy rains and high winds.