Watch | 'Dangerous' typhoon Nanmadol slams Japan even as millions take shelter
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said the storm officially made landfall as its eyewall arrived near Kagoshima city
PremiumTyphoon Nanmadol reportedly made landfall in southwestern Japan on Sunday night, even as authorities urged millions of people to take shelter from the powerful storm's high winds and torrential rain. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said the storm officially made landfall around 7 pm local time (1000 GMT) as its eyewall arrived near Kagoshima city, adding that it was packing gusts of up to 234 kilometres (146 miles) per hour and had already dumped up to 500 mm of rain in less than 24 hours on parts of southwestern Kyushu region.
According to AFP report, at least 20,000 people were spending the night in shelters in Kyushu's Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures, where the JMA has issued a rare "special warning" an alert that is issued only when it forecasts conditions seen once in several decades.
Additionally, national broadcaster NHK, which collates information from local authorities, said more than seven million people had been told to move to shelters or take refuge in sturdy buildings to ride out the storm and the evacuation warnings are not mandatory, and authorities have at times struggled to convince people to move to shelters before extreme weather, as per AFP report.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tweeted after convening a government meeting on the storm, “please stay away from dangerous places, and please evacuate if you feel even the slightest hint of danger. It will be dangerous to evacuate at night. Please move to safety while it's still light outside." The JMA has warned the region could face "unprecedented" danger from high winds, storm surges and torrential rain and called the storm “very dangerous," as per report.
(With inputs from AFP)
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