Typhoon Nabi batters southwestern Japan
Mon Sep 5, 4:40 AM ET
TOKYO (Reuters) - A typhoon of similar strength to Hurricane Katrina lashed southwestern Japan with torrential rains and high winds on Monday, cutting power supplies and disrupting transport and oil refineries.
Weather officials in South Korea also warned of flooding, while eastern China braced for possible effects from Typhoon Nabi after the region's previous storm killed at least 84 people in the east of the country, newspapers said.
Nabi was 180 km (112 miles) south of the tiny southern Japanese island of Yakushima at 3 p.m. (0600 GMT), the Meteorological Agency said. Winds were gusting up to 160 km an hour (100 mph) at the center of the typhoon, but the storm was expected to weaken slightly as it passes over cooler water.
The Tropical Storm Risk Web site classified Nabi as a Category 4 storm on an ascending scale of 1 to 5, the same category as Katrina, which hit the U.S. Gulf Coast last week.
Typhoon Nabi, whose name means "butterfly" in Korean, was traveling north-northwest at 15 km an hour (10 mph), heading directly for the densely populated southern island of Kyushu.
The Meteorological Agency expects Nabi to swerve to the east over the next 24 hours, putting it on course to batter much of Japan and southern and eastern parts of South Korea.
Television pictures showed coastal areas of Amami Oshima being engulfed by waves that national broadcaster NHK said were up to 9 metres high.
The Japanese government set up a liaison office within the prime minister's official residence to coordinate efforts among ministries and agencies concerned to minimise possible damage from the typhoon.
Japan's top government spokesman, Hiroyuki Hosoda, said the country's military, police, fire-fighters and coast guard would be put on standby for rescue operations.
He also urged people to stay off rooftops and away from rivers, oceans, paddy fields and waterways.
Hundreds of flights in and out of Kyushu were canceled on Monday, NHK said. Trains were also canceled and expressways closed in southern parts of the island. Nearly 20,000 households were without electricity on Kyushu, NHK said.
Nabi has sparked thunderstorms in Tokyo, where more than 110 mm (4.3 inches) of rain fell in an hour in some areas late on Sunday. Two men were killed -- one drowned and one was struck by lightning -- in areas close to the capital, police said.
Thousands of households in or near Tokyo were flooded and lost power, while some highways were closed and trains delayed. Some bank cash machines were also out of action due to power outages.
Japanese oil refiners suspended waterborne operations at some of their facilities on Monday, refinery spokesmen said.
Idemitsu Kosan Co., Japan's third-biggest refiner, said it had halted waterborne shipments of refined products at its terminals in Okinawa and Kagoshima, both located in southern Japan, because of the storm.
Operations at Idemitsu's refinery facilities, with a total capacity of 640,000 barrels per day, were unaffected, a company spokesman said.
Japan Energy, the refining unit of Nippon Mining Holdings Inc., also suspended tanker operations at its 200,200 bpd facility in Mizushima, western Japan.
Kyushu Oil Co. suspended waterborne operations at its 155,000-bpd Oita refinery in southwestern Japan, a company spokeswoman said.
The large scale of the storm and the low speed at which it was moving mean it would affect Japan for a relatively long time, possibly causing extensive damage, a Meteorological Agency official said.
China's Anhui province took the brunt of the region's previous typhoon, Talim, with 53 people killed and 12 missing. Twenty-six more were killed in Zhejiang province, where Nabi was expected to make landfall.
In Jiangxi province, Talim killed five people, but the toll could rise with 15 people missing inside two buildings buried by a mudslide, reports said.
(Additional reporting by Teruaki Ueno in Tokyo, Jon Herskovitz in Seoul and Guo Shipeng in Beijing)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050905/sc_nm/weather_japan_typhoon_dc_6
Mon Sep 5, 4:40 AM ET
TOKYO (Reuters) - A typhoon of similar strength to Hurricane Katrina lashed southwestern Japan with torrential rains and high winds on Monday, cutting power supplies and disrupting transport and oil refineries.
Weather officials in South Korea also warned of flooding, while eastern China braced for possible effects from Typhoon Nabi after the region's previous storm killed at least 84 people in the east of the country, newspapers said.
Nabi was 180 km (112 miles) south of the tiny southern Japanese island of Yakushima at 3 p.m. (0600 GMT), the Meteorological Agency said. Winds were gusting up to 160 km an hour (100 mph) at the center of the typhoon, but the storm was expected to weaken slightly as it passes over cooler water.
The Tropical Storm Risk Web site classified Nabi as a Category 4 storm on an ascending scale of 1 to 5, the same category as Katrina, which hit the U.S. Gulf Coast last week.
Typhoon Nabi, whose name means "butterfly" in Korean, was traveling north-northwest at 15 km an hour (10 mph), heading directly for the densely populated southern island of Kyushu.
The Meteorological Agency expects Nabi to swerve to the east over the next 24 hours, putting it on course to batter much of Japan and southern and eastern parts of South Korea.
Television pictures showed coastal areas of Amami Oshima being engulfed by waves that national broadcaster NHK said were up to 9 metres high.
The Japanese government set up a liaison office within the prime minister's official residence to coordinate efforts among ministries and agencies concerned to minimise possible damage from the typhoon.
Japan's top government spokesman, Hiroyuki Hosoda, said the country's military, police, fire-fighters and coast guard would be put on standby for rescue operations.
He also urged people to stay off rooftops and away from rivers, oceans, paddy fields and waterways.
Hundreds of flights in and out of Kyushu were canceled on Monday, NHK said. Trains were also canceled and expressways closed in southern parts of the island. Nearly 20,000 households were without electricity on Kyushu, NHK said.
Nabi has sparked thunderstorms in Tokyo, where more than 110 mm (4.3 inches) of rain fell in an hour in some areas late on Sunday. Two men were killed -- one drowned and one was struck by lightning -- in areas close to the capital, police said.
Thousands of households in or near Tokyo were flooded and lost power, while some highways were closed and trains delayed. Some bank cash machines were also out of action due to power outages.
Japanese oil refiners suspended waterborne operations at some of their facilities on Monday, refinery spokesmen said.
Idemitsu Kosan Co., Japan's third-biggest refiner, said it had halted waterborne shipments of refined products at its terminals in Okinawa and Kagoshima, both located in southern Japan, because of the storm.
Operations at Idemitsu's refinery facilities, with a total capacity of 640,000 barrels per day, were unaffected, a company spokesman said.
Japan Energy, the refining unit of Nippon Mining Holdings Inc., also suspended tanker operations at its 200,200 bpd facility in Mizushima, western Japan.
Kyushu Oil Co. suspended waterborne operations at its 155,000-bpd Oita refinery in southwestern Japan, a company spokeswoman said.
The large scale of the storm and the low speed at which it was moving mean it would affect Japan for a relatively long time, possibly causing extensive damage, a Meteorological Agency official said.
China's Anhui province took the brunt of the region's previous typhoon, Talim, with 53 people killed and 12 missing. Twenty-six more were killed in Zhejiang province, where Nabi was expected to make landfall.
In Jiangxi province, Talim killed five people, but the toll could rise with 15 people missing inside two buildings buried by a mudslide, reports said.
(Additional reporting by Teruaki Ueno in Tokyo, Jon Herskovitz in Seoul and Guo Shipeng in Beijing)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050905/sc_nm/weather_japan_typhoon_dc_6
