UPDATE - Japan braces for Halong, second typhoon in a week
Date: 16-Jul-02
Country: JAPAN
The storm was picking up speed and heading northeast, and appeared likely to rake across the main island of Honshu in a path similar to 's deadly typhoon Chata'an, which killed five in Japan and at least 76 in Micronesia and the Philippines.
"Both the rain and winds are strong and it's hard to walk outside," a city official in Naze, some 538 km (336 miles) southwest of Tokyo, told Reuters, adding that all bus service in the city was cancelled.
Although the force of the winds packed by the typhoon had weakened slightly to 126 km (78 miles) an hour, heavy rains are set to lash many areas still recovering from Chata'an and could trigger more landslides and floods.
"We're just getting things cleaned up," a man in Ogaki, hit hard by Chata'an, told public TV broadcaster NHK. "I don't know what we'll do if it happens again."
Named after a scenic bay in Vietnam, Halong was some 120 km (75 miles) south of the southernmost main island of Kyushu by early evening and moving northeast at 35 km (22 miles) an hour.
It was forecast to come ashore in western Japan sometime early on Tuesday and swing close to Tokyo on Tuesday morning, perhaps during rush hour, a Meteorological Agency official said.
Four people were slightly injured yesterday after being knocked off their feet by strong winds, and two oil refineries reported minor disruptions to shipping schedules, on due to bad weather and rough seas.
Some 30,000 houses on Okinawa, home to several large U.S. military bases, and a few islands between Okinawa and Kyushu lost power. But electricity was restored to all but 6,000 homes by evening.
Footage of the city of Naze carried by NHK showed palm trees bending in the winds along a road.
Around 140 domestic flights were cancelled, while some schools in Kyushu ended classes early.
About 200 to 250 mm (eight to 10 inches) of rain were predicted for areas of central and western Japan hit hard by Chata'an, with around 70 mm to 100 mm (three to four inches) likely to hit Tokyo by Tuesday evening.
This could spell trouble for many parts of Japan, where rice fields were flooded and steep mountainsides weakened by Chata'an.
All oil shipments by sea from the Okinawa Sekiyu Seisei Co Ltd refinery on Okinawa have been halted since Sunday and are likely to be suspended for the rest of Monday, a company spokesman said, while a Kyushu refinery has stopped new ships from anchoring at port.
Four typhoons - Rammasun, Chata'an, Nakri and Halong - have swept across the Pacific Ocean in the past two weeks, killing around 100 people in the region including Micronesia, the Philippines, China and the Korean peninsula.
Yet another storm, Typhoon Fengshen, had formed and was intensifying slightly yesterday as it headed north-northeast towards the Marshall islands.