At least four people were killed and 94 were injured as Typhoon Shanshan battered Japan with strong winds and torrential rain on Thursday, after making landfall in the morning near the city of Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, as a very strong storm.
While Shanshan weakened into a severe tropical storm later Thursday, it continued to bring heavy rain to not just Kyushu but wide areas of western and eastern Japan, prompting warnings about flooding and landslides and disrupting transportation networks across the country.
When it made landfall, Shanshan was packing sustained wind speeds of 144 kph and gusts reaching up to 216 kph, at the time carrying the weather agency’s rating of “very strong,” its second-highest level for typhoons.
As of 9 p.m. Thursday, the center of the storm was positioned near the city of Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture, moving slowly north-northwest. It had a central pressure reading of 985 hectopascals, maximum sustained wind speeds of 108 kph and gusts reaching up to 162 kph.
The center of the storm remains over Kyushu, with its outer areas covering Shikoku and parts of western Honshu. But heavy rain associate with the storm is reaching areas including Tokyo and the wider Kanto region.
Shanshan is expected to track northeast over Kyushu through Friday morning, before moving over Shikoku or western Honshu later on Friday.
As the storm continued to batter the nation, the tally of deaths and injuries began to rise.
Three people were killed after a landslide trapped five family members in Gamagori, Aichi Prefecture, earlier in the week, as rain brought in from the typhoon battered the Tokai region.
On Thursday, a man in his 80s was killed when the floor of his second storey home collapsed in the town of Kamiita, Tokushima Prefecture
By Thursday evening, at least 94 people across at least 10 prefectures — mainly in southern Kyushu — were injured, and one person was missing due to the storm, according to NHK. A man in his 60s went missing in Kagoshima Bay on Wednesday night when he fell into the ocean from the small boat he was on.
Eyewall of #typhoon #shanshan moving over Makurazaki now - fierce winds and sheets of rain flying every. Sporadic lightning too - with @iCyclone pic.twitter.com/QqDsNsj8TI
— James Reynolds (@EarthUncutTV) August 28, 2024
According to NHK, the city of Miyazaki received over 160 reports of damage due to the typhoon from noon on Wednesday through to 6 a.m. Thursday. About 70% of the damage was caused by strong winds, the broadcaster said.
Damage to homes mostly involved shattered windows from flying debris, while the injuries reported in the city, mostly caused by broken glass, have all been reported as non-life-threatening.
The cities of Bungotakada and Kunisaki in Oita Prefecture have issued Level 5 emergency warnings — the highest level — covering nearly 30,000 residents.
Kunisaki issued the alert at 2:15 p.m. for all 3,909 households, encompassing 8,518 residents, in the Aki-machi area of the city after the Aki River overflowed due to heavy rainfall.
Level 4 evacuation orders remain in place for the rest of Kunisaki, affecting 9,206 households and 19,414 residents.
Bungotakada issued its warning at 2:40 p.m. covering 10,999 households and 21,804 people throughout the city due to the threat of flooding of rivers and landslides in the city.
A Level 5 warning means residents should take immediate life-saving actions by moving to safer locations, such as the second floor or higher in their homes, nearby sturdy buildings or areas away from slopes.
A Level 5 warning was also issued at around 8 a.m. on Thursday for the city of Yufu in Oita Prefecture due to flooding from the Miyakawa River, which overflowed its banks amid the heavy rain. The alert covers 2,311 people in 1,256 households.
The same level of alert was issued later in the morning for the city of Usa, also in Oita Prefecture, due to possible flooding from the Yakkan River. The alert covers 27,015 people across 15,712 households.
As of 9:30 p.m. Thursday, over 150,000 households in Kyushu were experiencing power outages, according to Kyushu Electric, including about 134,000 in Kagoshima alone.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with ministers in related fields on Thursday, urging officials to do what they can to respond to the typhoon with a sense of urgency, especially given that the effects of the storm will most likely be prolonged.
“Please continue to put people’s safety first and cooperate closely with local authorities to take all possible measures to keep the public informed, support evacuation in advance in areas where danger is anticipated, and maintain a well-prepared disaster response centered on the police, fire department, and Self Defense Forces,” he said at the meeting on Thursday.
The government set up a special disaster prevention team for Typhoon Shanshan on Wednesday. The team is set to meet again for the second time later this afternoon.
A linear precipitation zone — or a band of cumulonimbus clouds — has developed in Oita, Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures due to the slow-moving storm, leading to prolonged heavy rain in the same area, where the weather agency has issued warnings of heavy rainfall. Later in the day, heavy rain Shikoku and southern Hyogo Prefecture prompted similar warnings.
The town of Misato in Miyazaki Prefecture recorded 793 millimeters of rainfall in the past 48 hours, which amounts to around 1.4 times the total amount that it receives on average during the entire month of August. The town of Kinko in Kagoshima Prefecture saw 557 mm, 1.7 times its usual total for the month, while the city of Saiki in Oita Prefecture saw 537 mm, over two times its August average.
Heavy rain is expected to continue across much of the nation, even in areas far from the storm, with parts of southern Kyushu expected to see 600 mm of rain over the next 24 hours. Parts of northern Kyushu and the Shikoku region are expected to see 400 mm.
Level 4 evacuation orders are currently issued in parts of Kagoshima, Miyazaki, Oita, Kumamoto, Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Ehime, Kochi, Aichi, Gifu, Shizuoka and Mie either due to the risk of heavy rainfall, flooding or landslides.
Aichi and Shizuoka remain far from the storm’s center, but outer bands of the powerful typhoon have already brought severe weather to the area.
Transportation networks across the southwestern and western part of the country were suspended or cut back on Thursday due to the storm, with shinkansen trains in Kyushu suspended through Thursday and Friday.
The Kyushu Shinkansen will continue suspending operations on Friday. JR West has announced that from the first train to around 10 a.m., it will suspend service between Hiroshima and Hakata stations, but that it will continue operations as usual between Shin-Osaka and Hiroshima.
Central Japan Railway (JR Tokai) announced at 6:50 p.m. Thursday that the Tokaido Shinkansen line between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka stations will be suspended for the rest of the day.
Trains that were running at the time of the announcement were set to either terminate at their next stop or return to their starting station.
The decision was made due to continued heavy rainfall in Shizuoka Prefecture, with no signs of the rainfall levels dropping below regulatory safety limits.
On Friday, the line between Mishima Station in Shizuoka Prefecture and Nagoya Station will be suspended, as heavy rain and strong winds are expected in the area.
The number of trains running between Tokyo and Mishima, as well as those between Nagoya and Shin-Osaka, will be significantly reduced as well.
JR Tokai has stated that the planned suspensions and alterations are subject to change if weather conditions worsen.
Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen trains with through service to Hakata Station in the city of Fukuoka will be completely suspended on Friday.
Air travel has also been heavily affected by Shanshan, completely shutting down regional airports and severely impacting flights departing from and arriving at Fukuoka Airport, the region’s busiest hub.
As of noon on Thursday, at least 794 domestic flights — 276 JAL flights, 214 ANA flights and 304 from other airlines — were canceled. So far, at least 74 flights have been canceled for Friday, 13 from JAL, 46 from ANA and 15 from other airlines.
As of 4 p.m. Thursday, all flights scheduled to arrive or depart from Fukuoka Airport have been canceled. Flights departing and arriving from Tokyo’s Haneda and Narita airports, as well as Kansai International, are currently largely unaffected.
While further study will be required to determine the influence of climate change on Shanshan, severe typhoons are becoming more common because of global warming, even as the overall number of tropical storms stays the same. A warmer atmosphere and ocean allow storms to hold more moisture, which increases the amount of rain, while storm surges are also higher due to a rise in sea levels.
