Around 80 flights and dozens of ferries were suspended as tropical storm Khanun was expected to make landfall in South Korea on Thursday.
On Wednesday, several flights were suspended by airlines and authorities issued warnings as Khanun, which has been demoted as a typhoon, hurled toward South Korea after speeding away from Japan’s Southern coast.
South Korea, which earlier suffered a heatwave, has already begun evacuating thousands of people into camps at the Worlworld Scout Jamboree.
Around 16,000 houses were without power on Wednesday due to heavy rain on the Japanese southern island of Kyushu. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued warnings of heavy rainfall and the “surging” possibility of “life-threatening mudslides and flooding” in the Kagoshima region of the island.
The phenomenon with a gust of up to 130kph (81 kph) is termed as a tropical storm by the US military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
A spokesperson informed Agence France Presse (AFP) that Japan Airlines have suspended 252 flights on Wednesday, affecting 25,000 people. Nippon Airways canceled all 96 flights impacting more than 10,000 passengers.
While local transport and express train services are suspended, Japan’s “shinkansen” bullet train has canceled its services in certain areas of the southern route, Kyushu Railway said in a statement.
The weather, which killed two people in Okinawa last week, has compelled organizers of the event marking the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki to carry out their Wednesday ceremonies inside.
The interior ministry said the crisis alert in Seoul has been raised to its highest level as Khanun’s landfall is expected to have “a direct impact on the whole country” from Wednesday to Friday.
According to a Yonhap news agency report, the presidential office is carrying out an emergency watch on the approaching typhoon.
On Tuesday, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said, “We will do our best to respond to the typhoon, so that no human casualties occur, with thorough control and pre-emptive evacuation for the high-risk areas such as underground tunnels and riverbanks.”
Meanwhile, another typhoon named Lan is developing in the Pacific, traveling at a gust of 108 kph and heading towards the main island of Honshu in the next few days, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency.
