Japan hit by strongest typhoon in 25 years
TOKYO — With wind speeds of up to 130 mph, Typhoon Jebi, the strongest storm to hit Japan in 25 years, made landfall in southern Japan early Tuesday afternoon, leading to calls for mass evacuations, snarling air transport and causing an oil tanker to crash into a bridge.
The storm prompted government officials to order more than 16,000 people in nine cities to evacuate, with an additional 1.2 million people advised to evacuate in 10 prefectures in southern Japan, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
As a result of Tuesday’s storm, close to 800 flights were canceled and several rail lines, including bullet train services, were suspended. Kansai International Airport near Osaka was closed because of severe flooding, leaving about 2,600 people stranded inside.
The storm killed at
least six people, in Osaka and Shiga prefectures, the public broadcaster NHK reported Tuesday night.
Early in the afternoon Tuesday, an oil tanker unmoored by the storm crashed into a bridge that connects Kansai Airport in Osaka Bay to the mainland. The coast guard was
using a helicopter and patrol boats to rescue crew members who were aboard the tanker, NHK said.
The typhoon hit during a summer of meteorological misery for Japan, with lethal floods and landslides hitting western Japan in July, killing more
than 200 people, and deadly heat waves claiming more than 130 lives that month.
Evacuation orders in Japan are not mandatory, but the failure of people to heed such orders during the July rains was seen as a contributing factor to the high number of deaths.