A strong typhoon cut through Japan after making landfall Sunday night, killing at least one person and injuring dozens, as well as stopping transport and bringing powerful winds and torrential rain to areas already hit hard by a series of recent extreme weather events, agencies reported.
Typhoon Trami caused serious travel disruptions in the Northeast Asian country, including the cancellation of bullet train services, more than 1,000 flights, and Tokyo’s evening train services.
National broadcaster NHK reported that one man had died in Tottori prefecture on Honshu island and another was missing on the southern island of Kyushu.
At least 84 people incurred minor injuries, many after being hit by glass fragments from windows shattered in the driving wind.
After battering Japan’s outlying islands including Okinawa, Typhoon Trami made landfall south of the city of Osaka in the western part of the country around 8pm local time (1100 GMT).
Yuji Ueno, an official in the town of Shirahama near where Trami made landfall, told AFP the winds were “enormous” and made it impossible to go outside.
“We saw incredible winds and rain. I stepped outside the city hall in the afternoon, and the rain was swirling in very strong wind. Enormous wind,” said Ueno. “It was difficult to stay standing. It was very scary.”
Trami, which at its strongest delivered maximum gusts of 216 kilometers per hour, was expected to churn over most of the archipelago, weakening slightly but causing extreme weather into Monday, forecasters said.