Typhoon Megi hits Japan and Korea
Typhoon Megi swept across the south-west tip of South Korea, leaving thousands of people homeless and at least one person missing, emergency officials said today.
The typhoon first hit yesterday, bringing heavy rains to south-western South Korea and leaving more than 2,400 people homeless, said Park Min-ju, an official at the country’s disaster agency.
More damage was predicted as the typhoon headed north-east, Park said, and it was expected to complete its pass over the Korean Peninsula by later today.
Meanwhile, heavy rain ahead of an approaching storm lashed southern Japan, leaving eight people dead and causing landslides and blackouts, officials said today. Two people were missing.
Some 20 inches of rain has fallen in some areas since Tuesday as Typhoon Megi approached the main southern islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, the Meteorological Agency said.
By early today, the typhoon was downgraded to a tropical storm.
The storm was packing winds of up 67 miles per hour early today and was passing near north-western Nagsaki, 680 miles south-west of Tokyo. It was travelling toward the southern tip of the Korean peninsula.
In Kagawa Prefecture in Shikoku, a 74-year-old farmer was found dead after he fell into a swollen canal Tuesday. Three more people – aged 84, 78 and 75 – were found dead yesterday after being washed away by raging rivers, police said.
In nearby Ehime, four people in their 70s – three men and a woman – were killed. A man was drowned after being swept away in a swollen river on Tuesday, and three more died yesterday when their homes were demolished by mudslides, local police said.
A 72-year-old woman and her daughter-in-law, 45, were missing after a mudslide hit a community centre where they were sheltering, sweeping them into a nearby river.
More than 4,700 people were ordered to evacuate their homes in Kagawa, and nearly 300 in Ehime.
National broadcaster NHK reported that more than 600 homes had been flooded in Shikoku.
