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Strong typhoon disrupts transport, cuts power near Tokyo

 

Passersby using umbrellas struggle against heavy rain and wind wind caused by Typhoon Faxai in Tokyo, Japan September 9, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato

 

TOKYO (Reuters) - One of the strongest typhoons to hit the Japanese capital in recent years made landfall just east of Tokyo on Monday, bringing record-breaking winds, stinging rain and sending some rivers close to the top of their banks.

 

More than 100 flights were cancelled and scores of train lines were closed, snarling the morning commute for millions in a greater Tokyo area that has a population of some 36 million, as authorities warned it was dangerous to venture outside.

 

Typhoon Faxai, a Laotian woman's name, slammed ashore in the city of Chiba, just east of Tokyo, a little before dawn, bringing with it wind gusts of 207 km per hour (128 mph) in Chiba, the strongest ever recorded there, NHK said.

 

There were no immediate reports of deaths and only several minor injuries by early Monday, but some 864,000 houses lost power, national broadcaster NHK said, including the entire city of Kamogawa, east of Tokyo.

 

"I've never seen a situation like this, where the entire city lost power," a city official told NHK.

 

Around four to five typhoons make landfall in Japan every year, but it is unusual for them to do so near Tokyo. NHK said Faxai was the strongest storm in the Tokyo area in several years.

 

Winds were occasionally strong enough to shake buildings in the neighbouring city of Ichikawa, while biting rain fell. Streets normally busy with commuters walking or bicycling to the train station were deserted.

 

Metal signs were torn from the sides of buildings, trucks overturned, the metal roof of a gas station torn off and glass display cases destroyed, scattering sidewalks with broken glass. Twenty-four hour fast food restaurants in central Tokyo closed, protecting their windows with plywood.

 

Some 5,000 people were ordered to evacuate, more than half in the tourist city of Kamakura just south of Tokyo, because of the danger of landslides, NHK said, but there were no immediate reports of major damage.

 

Parts of the Tokaido Shinkansen line were briefly halted but service resumed after several hours.

 

Faxai, which is moving rapidly, is expected to head out to sea by around noon on Monday, although winds are expected to linger for a while.

 

(Reporting by Elaine Lies, Chris Gallagher and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Peter Cooney and Paul Tait)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-09-09

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