Typhoon Jebi: Japan hit by strongest storm of 25
years
At least seven dead after Several people were
powerful typhoon injured at Kyoto station
when part of a glass ceiling
prompts flooding and collapsed, according to
chaos, leaving thousands police. A number of
stranded vehicles were blown on to
their sides on a motorway,
while a truck narrowly
escaped being swept off a
bridge connecting the
island of Shikoku and the
main Japanese island of
Honshu.
Television networks
showed dramatic footage
of a 2,591-tonne tanker
that collided with the side
of a bridge linking the
A powerful typhoon has mainland with Kansai
International airport,
slammed into
which stands on an
western Japan, artificial island in Osaka
inundating the region's
Bay. The tanker and
main international bridge were damaged but
airport, blowing a tanker the ship’s crew were
into a bridge, disrupting unhurt. The airport’s
land and air travel and runway and the basement
leaving thousands floor of a terminal building
stranded. were flooded, according to
local authorities.
Local media reported
The damage to the bridge
that seven people died
left the airport cut off from
and more than 100 the mainland and stranded
others were injured
around 3,000 people there,
when Typhoon Jebi an official said.
caused violent winds in
the west of the country.
The storm is the
strongest to hit the
country in 25 years.
According to public
broadcaster NHK, the
casualties included a 71-
year-old man who was
killed in western Shiga
prefecture after being
trapped under a TV stations also showed
warehouse that footage of a 100m (328 ft)
collapsed in strong wind. tall ferris wheel in Osaka
NHK said 164 people spinning furiously in the
had suffered mostly strong wind despite being
minor injuries. switched off. “I’ve never
seen such a thing,” a 19-
year-old man at the scene
told NHK.
Evacuation advisories were
issued for 1.19 million
people, along with a
stronger but non-
mandatory evacuation
order for a further 16,000
people, as the wind and
rain began to intensify on
Tuesday afternoon. Most
of those advised to leave
their homes and head to
1,500 temporary shelters
were in the western port
city of Kobe.
The meteorological
agency said in a televised
warning that the system
could trigger violent winds,
landslides and flooding in
southern and south-
western parts of the
archipelago, as well as high
tides, lightning and
tornadoes.
Typhoon Jebi struck
the Japanese cities of
Kobe, Osaka and
Kyoto on Tuesday
Dots show forecast track.
Storm’s path likely to stay
within coloured area.
The prime minister,
Shinzō Abe, urged
residents to “evacuate
early” and cancelled a
planned trip to Kyushu in
Japan’s south-west so he
could oversee the
government’s response.
While the typhoon is not
expected to make a direct
hit on Tokyo, its path will
take it over the cities of
Osaka and Kyoto before it
heads out to sea, according
to the meteorological
agency.
The agency added that if
Jebi maintained its current
strength of 216kmh
(135mph) it would be the
first “very strong typhoon”
to strike Japan since 1993,
when a powerful typhoon
left 48 people dead or
missing. “It is possible that
[Jebi] will make landfall
while maintaining its
extreme strength,” said
Ryuta Kurora, the agency’s
chief forecaster.
In the hours before the
storm made landfall, some
areas were already
experiencing violent
storms ”and the storms will
get stronger and stronger”,
he added.
The typhoon comes soon
after parts of Japan were
hit by torrential rains in
July that killed more than
200 people.
One resident of Osaka said
her house was shaking and
the lights were flickering
on and off. People in
nearby Kobe said on social
media that the wind was
shaking their apartment
buildings and ripping
branches off trees.
Typhoon Jebi: Japan hit by strongest storm of 25
years