FUKUOKA/YUFU, Japan. Typhoon Shanshan unleashed torrential rain across large parts of Japan on Friday, sparking widespread warnings of floods and landslides as it disrupted travel and forced major factories to shut down. The storm, which authorities have labeled as potentially one of the strongest ever to hit the region, has already claimed the lives of at least four people and injured 99 others, according to the disaster management agency.
Making landfall in the southwestern region of Kyushu on Thursday, Typhoon Shanshan brought with it heavy rain and fierce winds that left residents grappling with the aftermath. In the resort town of Yufu in Oita Prefecture, 67-year-old Yu Fukuda, who runs a fish farm and restaurant, arrived on Friday morning to find the building submerged under a meter of floodwater.
“There were streaks on the windows and everywhere there were marks from mud and dirt, so I could tell how high the water had risen. I felt very sad,” Fukuda said, as her staff and relatives worked to clear the debris, which included fishing nets and dead fish. “I wish the typhoon had just passed quickly, but it stayed around here for a long time.”
The typhoon, packing gusts of up to 180 km/h (112 mph), was located near Matsuyama in Ehime Prefecture at 3:45 p.m. (2345 GMT) on Friday, moving eastward, according to local authorities. The storm’s powerful winds were strong enough to topple moving trucks, and its slow progression across the country has led to record-breaking rainfall in areas far from its center.
In Kyushu, around 250,000 households were left without power on Thursday, but many saw services restored by Friday, according to Kyushu Electric Power Co. The typhoon’s impact extended far beyond Kyushu, with evacuation notices issued to more than 3.3 million people nationwide. The warnings were most concentrated in Kyushu but also extended to central and eastern regions, including Tokyo and Yokohama, where authorities cautioned about potential landslides and rivers breaching their banks.
Shizuoka, a major city in central Japan, recorded over 500 millimeters of rain in the last 72 hours—the highest volume since data collection began in 1976. However, disaster management minister Yoshifumi Matsumura noted that as of Thursday, only about 30,000 people, mainly in Kyushu, had evacuated.
The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that the storm would continue to threaten central and eastern Japan, including Tokyo, throughout the weekend and into early next week. As a precaution, Toyota has suspended operations at all its domestic plants through Monday morning, while other major companies, including Nissan, Honda, Renesas, Tokyo Electron, and Sony, have also halted production at various facilities.
The storm has severely disrupted travel, with airlines like ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines canceling hundreds of domestic and some international flights. Ferry and rail services, including the bullet train between Tokyo and Nagoya, were also suspended on Friday morning.
Lin Yue-Hua, a 60-year-old tourist from Taiwan, had her flight from Fukuoka back home canceled on Thursday. She was advised to book another flight but faced difficulties reaching the airport. “We were very worried and upset because we didn’t know what to do,” she said at a nearly empty train station on Friday after learning that all rail services, including the subway to the airport, had been canceled. “We stayed one more day in Japan. Then we saw it in the news that our flight from Taiwan couldn’t land in Japan after flying around the area for about 40 minutes and it flew back to Taiwan. We have been busy trying to find our way home.”
Typhoon Shanshan is the latest in a series of severe weather systems to strike Japan, following Typhoon Ampil earlier this month, which also resulted in power outages and evacuations. As the nation braces for more extreme weather, the full impact of Typhoon Shanshan is still unfolding.
Si Venus L Peñaflor ay naging editor-in-chief ng Newsworld, isang lokal na pahayagan ng Laguna. Publisher din siya ng Daystar Gazette at Tutubi News Magazine. Siya ay isa ring pintor at doll face designer ng Ninay Dolls, ang unang Manikang Pilipino. Kasali siya sa DesignCrowd sa rank na #305 sa 640,000 graphic designers sa buong daigdig. Kasama din siya sa unang Local TV Broadcast sa Laguna na Beyond Manila. Aktibong kasapi siya ng San Pablo Jaycees Senate bilang isang JCI Senator.
