Tokyo is about to be attacked by the worst typhoon to hit the city in six decades. Public transportations and airports are closed and the city is like a ghost town. A reader tweeted: Thinking of my friends out there, and all the other people… some of the nicest, friendliest, most welcoming people I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet.
Typhoon Hagibis. This powerful typhoon is similar to a category 3 hurricane and expected to make landfall over Japan Saturday afternoon local time. The storm already claimed casualties and knocked out electricity at thousands of homes.
Stockpiling and evacuation procedures are underway with winds of up to 216 kilometers per hour forecast but expected to weaken to about 190 km when getting to Tokyo. One person is reported to have died before the storm even hit land.
apan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. It was forecast to reach land in central or eastern Japan by late afternoon or early evening, local time. The JMA forecast up to 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) of rainfall as stockpiling had already ensued ahead of anticipated power outages.
Two Rugby World Cup matches have been canceled and qualifying at the Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit, five hours to the south of the capital has been postponed.
In excess of 1,600 flights have been grounded as Japan comes to a virtual standstill. Noncompulsory evacuation orders have also been issued to roughly 600,000 people, according to public broadcaster NHK.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet hosted a disaster management meeting on Friday. He said 17,000 police and military forces were ready to be deployed to ensure the safety of citizens. “The typhoon could cause power outages, damage to infrastructure and significantly affect people’s lives,” Abe said.
Japan receives approximately 20 typhoons per year, but it is not so common for Tokyo to be affected.
Hagibis is approaching just weeks after another powerful storm, Typhoon Faxai, resulted in two deaths and injured dozens more in the city of Chiba.
