Weather Officials: Don't Lower Your Guard
Japanese weather officials are calling on people to stay on the highest alert even though Typhoon Haishen, now threatening Japan's southwest, has weakened slightly.
Officials of the Meteorological Agency held a news conference at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Nakamoto Yoshihisa of the agency told reporters that violent winds and high waves were observed on islands in the Okinawa and Amami regions.
He said that based on the latest typhoon data, the officials are less likely to issue an emergency warning for Kagoshima Prefecture. But he said they're calling on people not to lower their guard since there's no major change in the level of the typhoon's expected maximum winds.
Haishen is packing maximum winds of 180 kilometers per hour near its center -- and gusts up to 252 kilometers per hour. It has a central atmospheric pressure of 925 hectopascals.
Weather officials say the typhoon was 90 kilometers east of the island Amami Oshima in the Pacific around noon on Sunday. They say it was moving north at 20 kilometers per hour.
The officials are calling on people to move quickly if evacuation advisories or orders are issued by local governments. They say it's better to act before violent winds prevent evacuation.
A land ministry official says there's a growing risk that big rivers will burst their banks in Kagoshima, Miyazaki and Kumamoto prefectures on the island of Kyushu.
Many hotels in Miyazaki Prefecture have been fully booked by people evacuating their homes. All 101 rooms at a hilltop hotel have been reserved for Sunday. The manager says full bookings are unusual for this time of the year.
The typhoon is affecting major transportation networks.
More than 500 flights have been canceled on Sunday. Most were to and from southern Kyushu and Okinawa.
The operator of the Kyushu Shinkansen says services will be partially suspended on Sunday and cancelled all of Monday.
