Typhoon Shanshan killed at least six people on Saturday as it made its way eastward over Japan, soaking huge swathes in heavy rain and sending warnings for floods and landslides hundreds of miles from the storm’s centre.
In the southwest of the country, footage from public broadcaster NHK showed houses with partially collapsed roofs and automobiles travelling at full speed on flooded highways. Record-breaking amounts of rain fell on Kyushu on Thursday when the storm made landfall.
One person was missing and more than 100 have been injured, said Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency. More than 35,000 homes were without power in southern Kyushu’s Kagoshima prefecture, according to Kyushu Electric.
Shanshan, centred in the Pacific Ocean some 480 km (300 miles) southwest of Tokyo at 12:50 p.m. (0350 GMT), triggered heavy rain as far away as the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, despite being downgraded to a tropical storm on Friday. Winds were gusting up to 25 metres per second (90 kph, 55 mph).
Authorities have issued flood and landslide warnings around the country since the storm’s arrival, halting air and rail services and shutting factories.
The storm is forecast to weaken to a tropical depression over the weekend but is expected to continue to bring heavy rain, NHK reported.
