Japan Typhoon Shanshan latest updates: One killed in landslide as fierce storm sees nearly a million evacuated

An aerial view shows the search and rescue operation at a landslide site caused by a heavy rain due to the approach of Typhoon Shanshan in Gamagori, in Japan’s central Aichi Prefecture, hundreds of miles northeast of where the storm’s heaviest winds are currently battering Kyushu.

The Japanese government has cancelled its annual earthquake drills planned for Sunday to free up disaster response resources to deal with Typhoon Shanshan, the Associated Press reports.

The warm, humid air around the typhoon and a separate high-pressure system has caused heavy rain in the central Japanese city of Gamagori, where a landslide buried a house with five people inside.

Four of them were rescued but one person later died, while workers were searching for the fifth person, according to the city’s disaster management department.

On the southern island of Amami, where the typhoon passed, one person was knocked down by a wind gust while riding a motorcycle, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

Satellite imagery shared by Colorado State University’s Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) has this view of Typhoon Shanshan as it impacts southern Japan.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency has issued its highest “special warning” for violent storms, waves and high tides in parts of the Kagoshima Prefecture.

Such warnings are issued where typhoons are due to hit with a strength experienced in that region of Japan only once every few decades, according to the agency.

The warnings indicate the “possibility that a major disaster prompted by (the typhoon) is extremely high,” the agency’s chief forecaster Satoshi Sugimoto was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse.

In neighbouring Miyazaki Prefecture, footage broadcast by NHK TV showed roof tiles being blown off houses, broken windows and felled trees.

“Our carport roof was blown away in its entirety. I wasn’t at home when it happened, but my kids say they felt the shaking so strong they thought an earthquake happened,” a local resident in Miyazaki told NHK, according to AFP, adding: “I was surprised. It was completely beyond our imagination.”

Hundreds of thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate their homes as Typhoon Shanshan approaches.

In Kagoshima Prefecture, emergency warnings were issued for storms and high waves – including the most severe level issued once every few decades for hundreds of homes on the island village of Mishima, south of Kyushu.

Evacuation orders were also issued in 27 cities in the Kagoshima Prefecture and parts of Miyazaki Prefecture, including the entire city of Miyazaki, which is home to more than 400,000 people, according to the Japan Times.

Despite being further from the storm and hundreds of miles northeast, evacuation orders were also issued in parts of the Aichi and Shizuoka prefectures, where heavy rain has brought fears of landslides, with some families trapped in Aichi on Wednesday.

Meteorologists are finding the path of Typhoon Shanshan highly unpredictable, with its slow-moving trajectory proving difficult to forecast and raising the prospects that parts of Kyusu could be hit for longer than expected, reports the Japan Times.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency stressed the typhoon’s slow pace at an earlier press conference, but said that southern Kyushu and the Amami Islands will experience extended periods of strong winds until Friday.

The storm is then expected to move to northern Kyushu, and then to the regions of Shikoku, Chugoku, and Kinki, which includes Osaka Prefecture, the outlet reported.

But the storm’s exact path after moving over Kyushu is murky — it appears likely to move towards Honshu, but could also veer into the Sea of Japan or track to the south in the Pacific, according to the Japan Times.

Weather and government officials are concerned about extensive damage across the nation as the typhoon slowly sweeps up the Japanese archipelago over the next few days, threatening floods and landslides and paralyzing transportation, businesses and other daily activity.

Disaster management minister Yoshifumi Matsumura, at a taskforce meeting on Wednesday, said the typhoon could cause “unprecedented” levels of violent winds, high waves, storm surges and heavy rain.

He urged residents in Shanshan’s predicted path to take precautionary measures early, such as by checking their nearest shelters, to save their own lives. Matsumura urged residents, especially older adults, not to hesitate and take shelter whenever there is any safety concern.

Airline group ANA Holdings said it would cancel more than 210 domestic flights in total between Wednesday and Friday slated to leave or arrive in southwestern Japan, affecting about 18,400 passengers.

Japan Airlines said it would cancel 402 domestic flights over the same three-day period. A total of 10 international flights operated by both airlines will also be suspended.

Nearly a million people have been ordered to evacuate their homes as Typhoon Shanshan approaches.

According to the New York Times, some 990,000 people have been impacted by evacuation orders across southern, western and central Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The evacuation orders have been issued in Kagoshima prefecture in southern Kyushu, and central Japan’s Aichi and Shizuoka prefectures.