Typhoon Neoguri heads east after hitting Japan’s Kyushu region
Typhoon predicted to be the strongest to strike Japan in decades to be downgraded to extratropical cyclone status on Friday afternoon after battering southern regions
Heavy rain continued to hit wide areas of Japan and affected traffic on Thursday due to typhoon Neoguri making landfall on the southernmost main island of Kyushu earlier in the day before it moved further east, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Since the agency issued its first special alert on Monday warning that the season’s eighth typhoon could be the strongest in decades, three people have died and 66 sustained injuries, according to a tally by Kyodo News at 10pm on Thursday.
After lashing the islands of Okinawa, the typhoon made landfall near the city of Akune, Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Kyushu, shortly before 7am. It made landfall again in southern Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan at about 6.30pm, the agency said.
The typhoon is expected to move east on the Pacific side of the Japanese archipelago and will be downgraded to an extratropical cyclone by Friday afternoon. It could also land on the Tokyo area.
The typhoon brought heavy rain to western Japan. In Seiyo, Ehime Prefecture on the smallest main island of Shikoku, a 77-year-old man was confirmed dead on Thursday after being found collapsed in a waterway.
On Wednesday, a 12-year-old boy died after being hit by mudflow in Nagiso, Nagano Prefecture, while an 83-year-old man died in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, after falling into a river.