Japan braced Wednesday for its strongest typhoon of the year, with authorities advising tens of thousands of people to evacuate and issuing the highest warning level for wind and storm surges on the main southern island of Kyushu.
“Typhoon Shanshan is expected to approach southern Kyushu with extremely strong force through Thursday and it may make landfall,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
It is expected that violent winds, high waves, and storm surge at levels that many people have never experienced before may occur, said Hayashi, the top government spokesman.
The approach of the storm, packing gusts of up to 252 kilometres (157 miles) per hour and already bringing widespread heavy rain, prompted auto giant Toyota to suspend production at all 14 of its factories.
Two people remained unaccounted for on Wednesday after a landslide buried a house with five family members inside in Gamagori, a city in central Aichi prefecture.
Comments are closed.