2023-08-03 07:07:19
The strong typhoon Khanun, which has been affecting southwestern Japan for several days and has triggered alerts in Taiwan and China, has left at least two dead and 60 injured in its progress through the Okinawa prefecture, in addition to causing suspensions of air traffic and power outages that today affected some 156,000 homes.
Khanun, the sixth typhoon of the season in the Pacific and classified as “very strong” by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), was located at 10:45 a.m. local time (1:45 GMT) about 230 kilometers to the southwest from Kumejima Island, in the Okinawa archipelago, which has been hit hard for a few days. The wind storm is moving at very slow speeds in a west-northwest direction, dragging gusts of winds of up to 216 kilometers per houraccording to the Japanese meteorological authorities.
Khanun already noted today its influence on the nearby island of Taiwan, as well as on the west coast of China in its advance, although the typhoon is expected to turn its course in the coming days to the east to head for the Japanese island of Kyushu (southwest) and the bulk of the main Japanese island of Honshu, where Tokyo is located.
This strong typhoon has already left two dead: an elderly man in his 90s in the town of Ogimi, crushed when a garage collapsed due to strong winds, and an 89-year-old woman in the city of Uruma who died from a fire by using candles to light your home after power outages. The typhoon has also left some 60 injured, including a person who broke his arm trying to remove a tree fallen by the wind and another man who suffered injuries when the glass of his house broke, according to the most up-to-date balance published by the public channel NHK.
The energy operator Okinawa Electric Power indicated for its part that around 156,000 households of Okinawa Prefecture suffered early today supply interruptions, that is, 24% of the total homes in the province, and was pessimistic about the work to restore services due to the storm. Numerous air connections from Naha, Miyako, Shin-Ishigaki and Shimojishima, Okinawa’s main airports, suffered cancellations today that affected 314 flights and some 40,000 passengers.
The Japanese authorities call for caution while the phenomenon continues due to the risk of storms, strong winds, waves and landslides linked to the typhoon.
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