TOKYO — Typhoon Vongfong battered the southern Japanese island of Okinawa on Sunday, injuring 31 people and knocking out power before losing intensity and getting downgraded to a tropical storm.
About 210,000 people from 90,000 homes were ordered to evacuate in Okinawa, 1,000 miles south of Tokyo, before it was hit by what was Japan’s strongest storm this year.
Some of the injuries were caused by strong winds. On Sunday, wind-speeds weakened significantly on Saturday’s peak of 146 mph, which made Vongfong into a “super typhoon.”
Airlines JAL and ANA canceled more than 400 flights because of strong winds, while the bullet train was halted in Kyushu after the wind blew a plastic sheet onto the aerial wires of the line.
Early Sunday, parts of Okinawa received more than 2 inches of rain within an hour while some parts of western areas of Japan’s four main islands were forecast to receive total rainfall of over 19 inches, with the rain intensifying as the storm makes landfall on Monday in Kyushu.
The storm is then expected to cut across the biggest of Japan’s islands, Honshu, causing heavy rain in Tokyo, before exiting from the north coast, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.
Vongfong, which means “wasp” in Cantonese, was following the path of Phanfone, a typhoon that slammed into Japan’s main island Monday, disrupting transport and prompting evacuation advisories for hundreds of thousands of people. Seven people were killed, including three U.S. airmen swept out to sea and a man who died while surfing.