On the island of Kyushu, four million people have been asked to evacuate.
Authorities warned millions of citizens to take shelter as Typhoon Nanmadol made landfall in southwestern Japan on Sunday night. The massive storm was packing fierce gusts and torrential rain.
Here are five things to know about Typhoon Nanmadol:
- The US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) designated Nanmadol as a super-typhoon, making it perhaps the most deadly tropical storm to hit Japan in decades.
- According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the storm's eyewall approached Kagoshima city at around 7 p.m. local time (10:00 GMT), marking the storm's official landfall. Parts of the southwestern Kyushu region have received up to 500 mm of rain in less than 24 hours, and the storm was packing gusts of up to 234 km/h (146 mph).
- At least 20,000 people were spending the night in shelters in Kyushu's Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures, where the JMA had issued a rare "special warning" (an alert that is only issued when it expects conditions to be experienced once in several decades).
- Seven million people have been instructed to evacuate to shelters or seek safety in strong structures to survive the hurricane. Around 20 typhoons hit Japan annually, and the country is presently in typhoon season. These storms frequently bring severe rainfall that results in landslides or flash floods.
- According to scientists, climate change is making storms more severe and increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including heat waves, droughts, and flash floods.
