Transport disruption as typhoon batters Japan
A strong typhoon Friday churned over parts of western Japan already hit by deadly flooding last month, but while transport links were disrupted there were few immediate reports of injury or damage.
Passengers pass next to a bulletin board with operations information of "shinkansen" bullet trains at Shin-osaka Station in Osaka on August 23, 2018, as Typhoon Cimaron nears the Japanese coastline. (Photo: AFP/Jiji Press)
Typhoon Cimaron made landfall late Thursday and passed over the Japanese archipelago overnight, bringing winds of nearly 200 kilometres per hour (134 mph) and dumping up to 600 millimetres of rain in 48 hours, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Television pictures showed torrential rain, flooded streets and some structural damage with roof tiles blown off and one lorry overturned on a bridge by the high winds.
The storm left nearly 100,000 households without power and forced airlines to scrap around 300 flights on Thursday and Friday. Bullet train services in the region were temporarily cancelled although they were running again on Friday morning.
Officials warned citizens to be vigilant for flooding, landslides and high waves, with meteorological agency chief forecaster Ryuta Kurora saying the typhoon could bring "multiple hazardous phenomena."
The river Kumano in western Wakayama prefecture broke its banks, flooding fields and rice paddies, television footage showed.
Typhoon Cimaron was next spiralling towards Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, where it is expected to make landfall later Friday, although the wind speed has now halved.
Cimaron followed Typhoon Soulik, which passed through southern Japan earlier this week, bringing heavy rain to parts of the main southern island of Kyushu.
The typhoon is the latest weather front to batter Japan, which has also been sweating through a record and deadly heatwave. This followed devastating heavy rain in central and western parts of the country in July that killed over 200 people.
The record rains caused flooding and landslides that killed more than 200 people and devastated swathes of the country.
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