(Tokyo) Rail and air traffic resumed almost normally Saturday morning in Japan after the typhoon hit Tokyo and its surrounding area. Ampilclassified as “very strong” but which did not cause major damage or serious injuries, authorities said.
Tokyo woke up on Saturday to clear blue skies and temperatures above 30°C, Ampil having continued its route in the Pacific Ocean.
On Saturday, only a few minor injuries, fallen trees, flooded roads and power cuts, which affected around 4,000 homes on Friday, had been reported by the authorities, who had invited 18,000 residents of the coastal region of Chiba prefecture to temporarily move into shelters.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), however, warned on Saturday of “heavy rain” in parts of northern Japan, where “the risk of landslides remains high in some areas.”
Shinkansen, Japan’s high-speed train, services have resumed as normal after the suspension of services on Friday, particularly to and from Tokyo.
PHOTO KYODO NEWS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Japan is regularly hit by major typhoons.
Air traffic has also started to return to normal: after canceling more than 650 flights for Friday, ANA and Japan Airlines had only 68 cancellations for Saturday, according to NHK.
The typhoon had been rated “very strong” by the JMA, one notch below its highest category of “severe typhoon.”
Ampil The announcement came as Japan celebrates the week-long “obon” holiday, when millions of people return to their families, and days after Tropical Storm Maria dumped record rains in parts of the north. Japan had also issued a warning of a “mega-earthquake.”
Like the region as a whole, Japan is regularly hit by major typhoons. They are increasingly forming closer to shore, intensifying more quickly than before and staying on land longer due to climate change, according to a joint scientific study published last month.
Researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Rowan University and the University of Pennsylvania in the United States analyzed and modeled “more than 64,000 historical and future storms from the 19e century at the end of the 21ste century” to reach these conclusions, according to a press release.