Strong typhoon hits Shikoku, brings heavy winds, rain to western Japan

[AsahinaKimi]

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A large and powerful typhoon was heading north Tuesday, lashing Shikoku Island and parts of the Kinki region in western Japan with strong winds of over 90 kilometers per hour, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

At around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, the typhoon hit the southern part of Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku -- the first typhoon landfall in Japan this year and the first in July in four years, the agency said.

Torrential rain and strong winds due to the typhoon have injured at least 47 people in 15 prefectures with another reported missing and disrupted public transportation.

Total rainfall from slow-moving Typhoon Ma-on could exceed 1,000 millimeters on the Pacific side of western and eastern Japan, the agency said. Northeastern Japan, hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the Hokuriku region facing the Sea of Japan may also experience heavy rain as the typhoon approaches, it said.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20110720p2g00m0dm001000c.html


Typhoon may spare Fukushima
Typhoon Ma-on slowed Tuesday as it approached southwestern Japan and was forecast to pass south of Tokyo on Wednesday night on a track that would take it away from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. The eye of the storm, categorized as "strong" by the Meteorological Agency, was about 60 km southwest of Cape Muroto, Kochi Prefecture, at 6 p.m. Tuesday. "Its progress has slowed while the wind speed remains the same," agency official Shunichi Yamaguchi said. "The outlook is for the typhoon to head east off Tokyo's coast, meaning it will not impact Fukushima and the northeast areas directly." In the village of Umaji, Kochi, rainfall topped 850 mm in a 24-hour period, marking the highest level there on record, according to the agency. Rainfall between 50 mm and 70 mm per hour was recorded from Shikoku through the Kinki, Tokai and Kanto regions, it said.

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