Powerful Typhoon Shanshan hits Kyushu Island, gusts of up to 200 km/h recorded

At least 26 people were injured and more than 150 buildings were damaged in the early hours of the morning in Miyazaki Prefecture on the Pacific coast of Kyushu, local officials said Thursday.

It is the most powerful of the year in the country. Typhoon Shanshan hit Japan on Thursday, August 29, causing casualties and damage in the early hours, particularly due to the winds and torrential rains that hit the south of the country. It was accompanied by gusts of up to 200 km/h and made landfall on the main island in the south of the country, Kyushu, where 12.5 million people live, around 8 a.m. (1 a.m., French time).

Twenty-six injuries, including 10 from a tornado, were reported and more than 150 buildings were damaged in the early hours of the morning in Miyazaki Prefecture on Kyushu’s Pacific coast, according to local officials. Most of the injuries were caused by broken windows or falling objects due to strong winds.

As of Wednesday, authorities had issued their highest alert level in some departments, advising hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate and warning of flooding, landslides and storm surges. “potentially fatal.”

Kyushu’s utility operator said 254,610 homes were already without power on the island. The system is moving slowly, meaning it has had time to fill with water over the sea, and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) is uncertainly predicting a gradual shift toward Japan’s main island of Honshu and the cities of Osaka and Nagoya.

The JMA warned that “The risk of disasters due to heavy rains could rapidly increase in western Japan by Friday.” “Please exercise maximum vigilance for the risk of severe storms, waves and high tides in Kagoshima, as well as landslides and flooding in low-lying areas and river overflows in southern Kyushu,” warned the JMA early Thursday.

The two southern prefectures of Kyushu are expected to receive about half of their average annual rainfall in 48 hours. In Kagoshima and Miyazaki, 1,100 mm of rain is expected by Friday morning, according to the JMA. Heavy rains brought by Shanshan have already been hitting other parts of Japan since Tuesday. Three members of a family, a couple in their 70s and their son in his 30s, died after a landslide buried their home in Gamagori, a city in central Aichi Prefecture, Kyodo News reported.