One of the most powerful typhoons hit Japan Tuesday afternoon killing nine and stranding thousands at a major airport. Jebi slammed into the west coast with its maximum speed of 216 kilometers an hour and causing heavy rain.
The powerful gusts of Typhoon Jiba overturned trucks, ripped sheeting from rooftops, swept a 2,591-ton tanker and damaged a bridge leading to Kansai International Airport, grounding around 3,000 people.
Kansai airport, which runs more than 400 flights a day, is an artificial island and now is completely cut off from the mainland. Basement and runways are flooded, and people are now being taken out through a boat service to nearby Kobe.
A stranded woman said, “We had a blackout so there was no air conditioning. It was hot… I’d never expected this extent of damage from a typhoon.”
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said evacuation advisories were issued Wednesday morning for over 1.22 million people and it is mandatory for another 29,600 people. Twenty prefectures shelters were set up and about 16,000 people spent the night in the arrangements.
In Osaka a scaffolding of a multi-story building was peeled off and ceiling of the tourist magnet’s main station fell in Kyoto. TV footage showed despite being switched off a 100-metre tall ferris wheel was spinning furiously in Osaka.
More than two million households suffered blackouts. Schools, factories and businesses were closed.
