Tokyo, August 16: A “very powerful” typhoon slammed Japan’s Pacific coast with strong winds and heavy rainfall, causing the withdrawal of lots of flights and railways in the Tokyo region and causing over 2, 000 homes to be without power.
Located about 170km south of Tokyo, Typhoon Ampil was packing winds of up to 216kmh as it headed north, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Instead of making ashore, the typhoon’s eye traveled northeast along the Honshu coast, passing through the Tokyo region, which has a population of about 40 million, before returning to the Pacific on Saturday.
The climate system was described as “very strong,” one notch below what it referred to as as a “violent typhoon,” with peak wind speeds of 195 kilometers per hour.
The company warned people to be “on high alert for violent winds, coastal waves, floods, flooding in low-lying lands, and valley storms”.
According to a statement, the risk of severe rain-related disasters may raise through Friday evening in the Kanto region close to Tokyo and through Saturday day in the northern Tohoku region.
By 3am Saturday ( 1800 GMT Friday ), the US military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center off the coast of the east of the capital’s coastal Chiba region, was able to forecast maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometers per hour.
More than 18, 000 people were given instructions to leave Chiba district south of Tokyo, according to a speech from the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
Some 2, 000 communities in Tokyo’s neighbouring counties, generally Chiba, were without electricity as of Friday afternoon due to the storms, according to the energy controller.