Powerful Typhoon Khanun was approaching Japan's southwestern island of Okinawa on Tuesday, lashing the region with strong winds and high waves, and forcing transportation to halt and stores to close.
The slow-moving Khanun, which means jackfruit in Thai, was heading northwest at speeds of 20 kph on Tuesday morning, packing surface winds of up to 162 kph. It was at sea southeast of Okinawa’s main island, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The city office in the Okinawan prefectural capital of Naha was closed Tuesday due to violent winds, while supermarket chains were also shut or operating under shorter hours.
Footage on NHK national television showed fallen trees on the street in Naha. No injuries were reported.
Hundreds of flights into and out of the Naha airport, including a more than a dozen international flights connecting Seoul, Hong Kong, Taipei and Shanghai, were canceled, according to the airport. Public transportation on Okinawa, including buses and light rail transit systems in Naha, and ferries connecting Okinawa and nearby islands, were suspended.
The typhoon will keep moving west and away from the main Japanese archipelago after passing by Okinawa on Tuesday, when it is expected to bring rainstorms and waves as high as 12 meters to the region, the agency said.
Up to 18 centimeters of rainfall are expected in the Okinawa region within the next 24 hours, the meteorological agency said.
Officials warned residents of violent winds and high waves, as well as flooding, and urged them to stay indoors and away from windows.
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tamanegi
That came up quick. Take care Okinawa.
voiceofokinawa
Okinawa is often called the Typhoon Ginza, because its location is on the route of typhoons that are born east of the Philippines, move north via Okinawa, rendering its packing winds the strongest.
We know typhoons by the order they are born in the Pacific, and so the latest one is Typhoon No. 6, and the last one was Typhoon No. 5. During Japan's occupation period typhoons were called by the U.S. occupation forces with American girls' names. Probably, the U.S. meteorological corps started the custom of calling typhoons by girls' names, such as Della and Sarah, nostalgically recalling their wives or fiances back home.
No one here knows the latest typhoon is known internationally as Khanun. So, if you say, as the headline of the other article, "Typhoon Khanun kills one, cut poser to a third of Okinawa homes," readers becomes stupefied.