TOKYO (AFP) – Airlines cancelled several hundred flights and authorities issued warnings yesterday as tropical storm Khanun barrelled off Japan’s southern coast towards South Korea.
The storm, downgraded from typhoon status, has already prompted South Korea to begin the evacuation of tens of thousands camping at the World Scout Jamboree, which was earlier hit by a heatwave.
Yesterday, about 16,000 households were without power as heavy rain pounded Japan’s southern island of Kyushu. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of torrential rain and the “surging” risk of “life-threatening mudslides and flooding” in the island’s Kagoshima region.
The United States military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center has designated the system a tropical storm with gusts of up to 130 kilometres per hour.
