Picture : Twitter
Typhoon Jebi said to be the most powerful typhoon to hit Japan in a quarter century has caused havoc. The death toll has now risen to nine, with thousands stranded at a major airport because of storm damage.
Typhoon Jebi slammed into the west coast of Japan around noon on Tuesday, bringing maximum winds of 216 kilometres (135 miles) an hour and heavy rain. The powerful gusts ripped sheeting from rooftops, overturned trucks on bridges and swept a 2,591-ton tanker anchored in Osaka Bay into a bridge leading to Kansai International Airport.
Osaka, Japan: Kansai international airport, 3rd busiest in Japan and built for $20 billion including the cost of land reclamation, two runways, terminals and facilities flooded by typhoon #jebi #climate #Photos pic.twitter.com/4d3knL1mV3
— Assaad Razzouk (@AssaadRazzouk) September 5, 2018
The damage to the bridge left the airport, which is on an artificial island, cut off from the mainland, and around 3,000 people were stranded at the facility overnight, a transport ministry official told AFP. Parts of the airport’s runways and basement were also flooded after high waves whipped up by the storm washed into the facility.
Hundreds more were injured, mostly by flying debris, local media said. Evacuation advisories were issued for more than 1.22 million people as of Wednesday morning, while another 29,600 people under stronger, though still not mandatory, evacuation orders, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. And 16,000 people spent the night in shelters across 20 prefectures, Local daily Jiji reported.
Intense winds from Typhoon #Jebi, now the strongest storm on the planet this year, ripped off rooftops and left about 1.6 million households without power in Osaka and surrounding areas as it made landfall in Japan on Tuesday https://t.co/rQcXV1jPc6 pic.twitter.com/WbDDgjhq9f
— The Weather Network (@weathernetwork) September 5, 2018
