Japan's Southwest In Powerful Typhoon Storm Zone
A large and very strong typhoon is moving northward, engulfing the southern main island of Kyushu and parts of the Chugoku region. Officials are warning of torrential rain, strong winds, higher than normal tides and high ocean swells.
Weather officials say that at 6 a.m. on Monday, Typhoon Haishen was at sea 40 kilometers southwest of Tsushima City, Nagasaki Prefecture. They say it was moving north at 40 kilometers per hour.
Haishen has a central atmospheric pressure of 945 hectopascals. The typhoon is packing maximum winds of 162 kilometers per hour near its center, with gusts of up to 216 kilometers per hour.
The storm is bringing strong winds to Kyushu. Gusts of over 210 kilometers per hour were measured around 2 a.m. on Monday in Nomozaki, Nagasaki City. That's the strongest ever winds recorded there.
In northern Kyushu, winds strong enough to overturn trucks are being forecast.
A mudslide warning has been issued for parts of Nagasaki, Miyazaki, Kumamoto and Tokushima prefectures.
So far, at least twenty-four people have been injured in Kyushu.
All seven prefectures on Kyushu island issued evacuation orders to local residents on Sunday. The orders affected more than 1.8 million people.
The operator of the Kyushu Shinkansen says all trains will be canceled on Monday. Sanyo Shinkansen trains between Hakata and Hiroshima will also be canceled.
