Powerful Typhoon Trami batters Okinawa, churns toward mainland Japan

KAGOSHIMA: At least 18 people were reported injured as powerful typhoon pummeled Okinawa on Saturday, weather officials warned the storm will rip through the rest of Japan over the weekend.

Typhoon Trami, packing gusts of up to 216 kph (134 mph) near its center, is forecast to hit the mainland early Sunday and could cause extreme weather across the country into Monday.

Branches ripped from trees blocking the main street in Naha were seen in a TV footage, torrential horizontal rain and massive waves slamming into breakwaters on a remote island.

Some 600 people had evacuated to shelters in Okinawa and electricity had been cut to more than 121,000 homes, public broadcaster NHK said.

Local policemen equipped with chain saws battled strong winds as they worked to remove fallen trees.

In Okinawa, where its gubernatorial election is scheduled for Sunday, more than half of the municipalities have decided to close early voting stations due to the weather, according to the prefectural election administration commission.

The typhoon has forced airlines to cancel more than 410 flights to or from airports in Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures on Saturday, affecting over 39,000 passengers.

Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture plans to temporarily close its two runways as early as Sunday morning, about seven hours before the typhoon is expected to come closest to the airport.

The main global gateway to the region was forced to close earlier this month after a runway and a terminal building were flooded amid high tides when Typhoon Jebi made landfall on Sept. 4. The airport only resumed full operations on Sept. 21. Jebi also drove a tanker ship into the only bridge that connects the mainland to the airport, which is on an artificial island in Osaka Bay, stranding thousands of people at the facility at one point

West Japan Railway Co. (JR West) said it will halt all trains between Hiroshima and Shin-Osaka stations from shortly before 1 p.m. Sunday as the typhoon is expected to affect the area.

It also said it will suspend all train services in the metropolitan area centering on Osaka by noon on Sunday as a precautionary measure. At least 18 people suffered minor injuries in storm-related accidents in Okinawa but no one was feared dead, local officials said Saturday.

Trami is the latest in a series of extreme natural disasters to strike Japan. Western parts of the country are still recovering from Jebi and deadly record rains also hit the region earlier this year.

Also in September, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake rocked Hokkaido, sparking landslides and leaving 41 people dead.