(26 August 2005)
Typhoon Mawar bears down on Japan
A powerful typhoon was expected to make landfall somewhere between the Tokai and Kanto
regions by early Friday, the 26th Aug 2005, the Meteorological Agency said.
Typhoon Mawar affected air and ferry services throughout Thursday. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways canceled many domestic flights, mainly between Tokyo and western cities.
Passenger ferries between Tokyo and the Izu Islands, as well as those between
Nagoya and Tomakomai, Hokkaido, were also canceled.
Japan Railway group companies canceled some train services to and from the Izu Peninsula,
Shizuoka Prefecture, and the Kii Peninsula in Wakayama Prefecture, and scrubbed 27 night trains on Thursday.
The typhoon was located about 90 km southwest of Irozaki, Shizuoka Prefecture, as of
7 p.m. Thursday
(1000 GMT 25 Aug) and was heading northeast at 20 kph, the agency said.
About 20 mm of rain fell per hour in areas of the Kii and Izu peninsulas Thursday morning, and a maximum
wind velocity of about 112 kph was registered in Shionomisaki, Wakayama Prefecture.
The typhoon is expected to bring strong
winds, high waves and torrential rain to wide areas of the Tokai, Kanto and Koshin regions.
The typhoon had an atmospheric pressure of 955 mb (hectopascals) and was packing
winds of up to 144 km/h near its center. It was generating winds of more than 90 km/h within a 90-km radius of its eye.
The typhoon was expected to be within a 190-km radius centered on a point 60 km east of the city of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, by 6 p.m. Friday, and is expected to become an extratropical depression in the Pacific east of Hokkaido Sunday morning.
The storm is expected to bring heavy rain in the 24 hours to noon Friday, with the Tokai, Kanto and Koshin regions expected to see up to 350 mm and the Tohoku region expected to receive 250 mm.
In some areas, 40 mm to 60 mm of rain is forecast per hour.
In coastal areas from the Tokai to Kanto regions, waves of more than 6 meters are expected.
Latest update:
A powerful typhoon has struck near Japan's capital, Tokyo.
Typhoon Mawar (named after a type of flower) brought winds of 108km/h (67mph) and heavy rain, triggering flood warnings for the Tokyo region. It is moving at 15 km/h
More than 3,500 households were without power and there were reports of at least three landslides in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo.
Residents in Chiba and Shizuoka prefectures had to be evacuated to avoid threatened floods and landslides. Some 27 million people live in Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures.
"Since the typhoon's moving speed is slow, there are concerns that heavy rains and
winds might occur in the areas where the typhoon stays," a spokesman for the Japan Meteorological Agency told AFP news agency.
Japanese television reports showed fishing boats returning to port as giant waves hit the coastline before the typhoon struck.
Japan is hit by two to three
typhoons each year, but as many as 10 - the last of which alone killed 90 people - struck the country in 2004.
