Millions told to evacuate as typhoon pummels Japan (updated)

Renesas Electronics

29/08/2024 10:39

(RPT of story published August 29, 20245:21 PM GMT+8)

        * 
      Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and semiconductor firms halt
production
    

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      More than 200,000 households without power in seven
prefectures
    

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      5.2 million people issued evacuation notices across Japan
    

  
    By Satoshi Sugiyama, Kiyoshi Takenaka
       TOKYO, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Millions of people were
ordered to evacuate their homes as Typhoon Shanshan lashed
southwest Japan with strong winds and torrential rain on
Thursday, knocking out power, snarling air traffic and forcing
major factories to close.
    At least three people have been killed so far and scores
injured in what authorities have warned could be one of the
strongest ever storms to hit the region.
    Toyota  7203.T  suspended operations in all of its domestic
plants due to the storm, while other automakers Nissan  7201.T 
and Honda  7267.T , and semiconductor firms Renesas  6723.T ,
Tokyo Electron  8035.T  and Rohm  6963.T , also temporarily
halted production at some factories.
    Funeral parlour employee Tomoki Maeda was in a hearse when
the typhoon struck in Miyazaki city in southern Kyushu,
shattering windows and tearing down power lines and the walls of
some buildings.
    "I've never experienced such a strong wind or tornado in my
31 years of life," Maeda told Reuters. 
    Bringing gusts of around 50 metres per second (180 km per
hour/112 mph), strong enough to blow over moving trucks, the
typhoon was near Unzen city in Nagasaki Prefecture at 3:00 p.m.
(0600 GMT) and moving northwards, according to the weather
agency. 
    More than 200,000 households in seven prefectures were
without power in the afternoon, according to Kyushu Electric
Power Co. The utility earlier said there was no impact at its
Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in Satsumasendai city, where the
storm made landfall earlier on Thursday. 
    Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press
conference that three people had died and one was missing in
incidents related to the typhoon, while the disaster management
agency said 45 had suffered injuries. 
    After hovering over Kyushu for the next few days, the storm
was expected to approach the central and eastern regions,
including the capital Tokyo, around the weekend, the weather
agency said.
More than 5.2 million people have been issued evacuation notices
across the country, authorities said, mainly in Kyushu but also
in some areas of central Japan, which have been hit by heavy
rain that triggered a landslide on Wednesday.
    Madoka Kubo, who runs a hotel in the historic, riverside
city of Hitoyoshi in Kumamoto prefecture, told Reuters that all
her reservations had been cancelled and she was now housing
elderly people who had been evacuated from nearby areas.
    Airlines, including ANA Holdings  9202.T  and Japan Airlines
 9201.T , have already announced cancellations of nearly 800
flights. Train services have been suspended in many areas of
Kyushu, while hundreds of bus and ferry services have also been
halted, according to the transport ministry.
    Typhoon Shanshan is the latest harsh weather system to hit
Japan, following Typhoon Ampil, which also led to blackouts and
evacuations, earlier this month.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama, Sam Nussey, Yuka Obayashi, Maki
Shiraki, Rocky Swift, Kantaro Komiya, Mahezabin Syed and John
Geddie; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Raju Gopalakrishnan
and Alex Richardson)
((mailto:Satoshi.Sugiyama@thomsonreuters.com;))