A powerful typhoon swept across Japan’s southern islands on Thursday, flipping over cars, toppling telephone poles and causing at least 71 injuries and one death, officials said.
Killed by the typhoon was an 86-year-old woman hit by glass shards from a window at her retirement home, according to the Okinawa Prefectural (State) Disaster Prevention Office.
The office, in a statement, said another woman was in a serious condition. Officials had earlier put the figure at three.
Dozens of homes were flooded or severely damaged and three fishing boats sunk as Typhoon Maemi raged through the night over Miyakojima, the hardest-hit island, officials said. By late afternoon, most of the island remained without electricity.
Maemi, the strongest typhoon to hit the Okinawan islands in southern Japan in more than 30 years, whipped up sustained winds of more than 198kph, according to Japan’s Central Meteorological Agency.
The agency warned local residents the typhoon was moving slowly and was expected to continue to lash the area with high winds and downpours before heading off toward the Korean Peninsula.
On Miyakojima, an island of 56 000 people about 1 850km southwest of Tokyo, officials said the winds had left 22 000 households without electricity. Several thousand more were stranded by the cancellation of flights to and from the island and others nearby.
United States military officials said the roughly 50 bases on Okinawa were closed with all non-essential staff told to remain at home. The US has about 35 000 troops on Okinawa.
Maemi — which means cicada in Korean — was the strongest typhoon to hit the Okinawan islands since 1968, said meteorological agency official Choyu Kamiya. Its maximum gusts of around 266kph made it the seventh strongest to hit anywhere in Japan to date.
The 1968 typhoon killed three people.
Maemi was expected to reach Korea on Saturday after dumping rain on Kyushu, one of Japan’s four main islands.
Japan, and particularly its southern islands, are regularly battered by typhoons in the summer and early autumn. Maemi is the 14th of the year, according to the meteorological agency.
Typhoon Etau killed eight people in Japan last month and left another 12 missing. — Sapa-AP