The Japanese meteorological agency warned on Saturday of the “unprecedented” risks of a “very dangerous” typhoon heading towards the island of Kyushu, located in the south of the archipelago.
She urged residents to take shelter before the passage of Nanmadol which was blowing on Saturday with gusts reaching 270 km / h.
This typhoon has been classified as a “severe” storm, the agency’s highest level.
It should approach or make landfall on Sunday at Kagoshima prefecture, located south of the island of Kyushu, before heading north on Tuesday, towards the main island of the archipelago.
“There are risks of unprecedented storms, high waves, flooding and record rainfall,” Ryuta Kurora, head of the forecast service at the Japan Meteorological Agency, told reporters.
“We must exercise maximum caution,” he said, calling on residents to evacuate quickly because “it is a very dangerous typhoon”.
Mr Kurora said the meteorological agency might issue a maximum alert later on Saturday for the Kagoshima region.
It would be the first typhoon-related special alert issued outside the Okinawa area since the system was set up in 2013.
“The wind will be so strong that some houses might collapse,” Kurora said, also warning of floods and landslides.
An evacuation “order” – level four on a scale of five – has been issued for 330,000 residents of the city of Kagoshima, and authorities have urged people to go to shelters.
In Japan, evacuation alerts are not mandatory, and during previous extreme weather events, authorities have sometimes struggled to convince residents to seek shelter as soon as possible.
Japan is currently in the middle of typhoon season. It is hit by regarding twenty storms of this type per year.
Prior to the storm’s arrival, flight cancellations began affecting regional airports, including in Kagoshima, Miyazaki and Kumamoto, according to the websites of Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways.
