Daily Times

One of the strongest typhoons to hit Japan in decades dumped torrential rain across southern regions on Thursday, with authorities warning of life-threatening flooding and landslides.

Typhoon Shanshan packed gusts of up to 252 kilometres (157 miles) per hour as it smashed into Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu early Thursday, making it the most powerful storm this year and one of the strongest at landfall since 1960.

After making landfall gusts eased to 198 kph.

Three people were killed in a landslide on Tuesday night as heavy rains from the approaching typhoon pummelled the area.

Authorities issued their highest alert in places, advising hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate.

The coastal city of Miyazaki, littered with debris from nearly 200 damaged buildings, reported 25 injuries — including some from a tornado.

Broadcaster NHK said 59 people were injured in the Kyushu region, and a man on a small boat was missing off nearby Kagoshima prefecture.

Worried student Aoi Nishimoto, 18, said he had called his family in Miyazaki to see if they were alright.

“Our home is fine, but there was a tornado in Miyazaki and power went out in some places. It’s worrying,” he told AFP in Kyushu’s main city of Fukuoka.

“This year, I am away from my parents’ home for the first time. So it’s a bit scary being all alone,” fellow student Rio Ohtsuru, 19, told AFP.

“Maybe I will look for a flashlight in case of a power outage,” she said.

Kyushu’s utility operator said 235,760 houses were without power elsewhere on the island.

In the city of Usa, retiree Fukashi Oishi looked forlornly at an old tree opposite his house that was already mature when he was a child but had snapped and fallen on the road.

“Oh, it’s so sad,” he told AFP.

The weather system was moving slowly, which often means more rain, with the weather office forecasting it would gradually rumble towards Japan’s main island Honshu and the cities of Osaka and Nagoya, although this could change.