Typhoon damage closes Kansai int’l airport indefinitely

TOKYO – One of Japan's largest airports, Kansai International, was closed indefinitely by damage from the nation's most powerful typhoon in 25 years.

The bridge that links the island airport with the mainland was hit by a storm-driven tanker ship Tuesday, shearing off one chunk and dislodging a section of roadway from the rest of the bridge. At the airport, one runway was under water and one terminal's basement was flooded, an airport spokesman said.

The airport, near Osaka, serves as one of the nation's main gateways for Asian tourists. Japan Airlines said 150 passengers and 600 staff were still at the airport as of Tuesday night, and there was no immediate way to evacuate. An airport spokeswoman said a total of 3,000 customers and airport staff were stranded at Kansai International on Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning, the airport started evacuating passengers by ship to a port at Kobe Airport, which is about 1.5 hours away from Kansai International, the spokeswoman said. So far, three ships have evacuated about 300 people and ships will pick up customers every 15 minutes, she added.

A terminal for low-cost carriers escaped major damage but its runway remained closed. The spokeswoman said Wednesday morning it was still too soon to say when the airport might reopen.

Japan had been preparing for days for Typhoon Jebi, which carried peak winds of around 130 miles an hour and brought heavy rains to much of central Japan.

No trains or cars were on the bridge when it was struck, and NHK said that by late Tuesday all 11 crew members aboard the ship were evacuated from it without injury. Nationwide, NHK said, at least seven people were killed and more than 300 injured as the typhoon knocked down trees, flooded coastal areas and damaged buildings.

Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways (ANA), the nation's two biggest carriers, both canceled hundreds of flights most of them domestic, while the bullet train linking Tokyo and Osaka was temporarily shut down. ANA said about 29,100 passengers were affected.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe canceled a planned trip to the southern prefectures of Fukuoka and Kumamoto and stayed in Tokyo to coordinate the response.

Japan has suffered a series of natural disasters this summer. In late June and early July, heavy rains triggered in part by a typhoon led to widespread flooding in the western part of the country, killing at least 220 people, according to government figures. On June 18 an earthquake centered in Osaka killed five people.

Damage to major factories in Osaka, an industrial center, appeared light. Toyota Motor Corp. unit Daihatsu Motor suspended night production at one factory in the region because there was no public transportation for the workers. (WSJ)