Typhoon Phanfone hits Japan, one victim and three missing
Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A powerful typhoon is bearing down on the west coast of Japan, causing at least one ascertained victim so far and three missing. Hundreds of flights have been canceled across the country, thousands of people evacuated while Phanfone heads toward the capital, Tokyo, with winds up to 180 km / h and heavy rains.
The bad weather also caused a halt in search operations for the missing from the Monte Ontake eruption last week; the volcano has caused at least 51 deaths and 12 people are still missing.
Typhoon Phanfone has been degraded from a previous status of super-typhoon, but according to the Japanese weather experts it is still a high risk category storm. In the early hours of the morning it touched down in Hamamatsu, a small town in the center of Japan, halting production of major car manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan, which have important factories along the route of the typhoon.
Japan is hit every year by an average of at least 11 typhoons. In August, the passage of typhoon Halong- the 11th in 2014 - caused more than 10 deaths, two missing and at least 60 injured; nearly 500 homes were destroyed, more than 700 canceled flights and the suspension of rail inks between Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen.
The confirmed victim is a US soldier, stationed at the base in Okinawa in the south of the Japanese archipelago; he was part of a group of three soldiers, swept away by the waves while they were busy taking photographs on the beach. The other two soldiers are still missing. There has been no news of a university student also surprised by the typhoon while he was surfing in the seas around Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo.
At least 100 mm of rain is expected to fall on the capital
in the next 24 hours, several schools have been closed as a precaution.
Heavy rains have caused a shift in the departure timetable yesterday of the Formula
1 Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka. The bad weather also caused the serious
accident of the French driver Jules Bianchi, who lost control of the car on the
wet surface; he underwent head surgery overnight and is still hospitalized in
serious condition.
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