Massive Typhoon Nearing Western Japan

September 30, 2018

Tokyo- Massive Typhoon Trami was heading for western Japan on Saturday, on the heels of another powerful typhoon that battered the region in early September, with the operator of Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture set to close its two runways on Sunday.

Typhoon Trami is expected to speed up while passing through waters south of the Kyushu southwestern region. It is feared to make a landfall around the Kii Peninsula in western Japan on Sunday afternoon before sweeping through the eastern and northern regions.

On Saturday, the 24th typhoon of this year caused heavy storms in the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa and the Amami islands in nearby Kagoshima Prefecture. In the Okinawa city of Nanjo, a peak gust speed of 56.2 meters per second was observed shortly before 10 a.m. (1 a.m. GMT), hitting a record high at the monitoring post.

The typhoon left 35 people injured in Okinawa, according to the prefectural government. Some 250,000 households were briefly without power, according to Okinawa Electric Power Co..

With a rain front growing active, the city of Shingu in the western prefecture of Wakayama saw rainfall of 93.5 millimeters only in the hour through 2 p.m.

The two runways at Kansai International Airport will be closed from 11 a.m. on Sunday, the airport's operator, Kansai Airports, said. They will reopen at 6 a.m. on Monday if weather permits, it said.

The closure has been decided promptly, after about 8,000 people were stranded at the offshore airport when Typhoon Jebi, the 21st of the year, made a landfall in the western region on Sept. 4.

The operator of Universal Studios Japan said Saturday that the theme park in the city of Osaka will be closed on Sunday. Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings Inc.'s All Nippon Airways will cancel a total of 505 international and domestic flights on Sunday, affecting about 38,900 passengers.

Typhoon Trami was moving about 80 kilometers west-northwest of Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima at midnight on Saturday, with an atmospheric pressure of 950 hectopascals at its center, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Jiji Press