TWO CATASTROPHIC WEATHER events have taken place on opposite sides of the world as a tropical storm slammed into south-western Japan yesterday, leaving one person dead and another missing, while the US territory of Puerto Rico is devastated by Hurricane Fiona.
Residential streets were flooded in Japan with muddy water from rivers, and swathes of homes lost power after Typhoon Nanmadol made landfall in the Kyushu region on Sunday then weakened to a tropical storm.
A man was found dead early today in his car that had sunk in water on a farm, said Yoshiharu Maeda, a city hall official in charge of disasters at Miyakonojo, Miyazaki prefecture.
Separately, one person was missing after a cottage was caught in a landslide, according to a Miyazaki prefectural official.
Nanmadol has sustained winds blowing at 110 kph and gusts up to 160kph, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Tens of thousands of people spent the night at gymnasiums and other facilities in a precautionary evacuation of vulnerable homes.
More than 60 people were injured, including those who fell down in the rain or were hit by shards of glass, according to Japanese media reports.
Torrential winds smashed signboards. A construction crane snapped in Kagoshima city, south-western Japan.
In Puerto Rico, Hurricane Fiona struck the Caribbean island’s south-west coast yesterday as it unleashed landslides, knocked the power grid out and ripped up asphalt from roads and flung the pieces around.
Forecasters said the storm would cause catastrophic flooding and threatened to dump “historic” levels of rain, with up to 64cm possible in isolated areas.
“I urge people to stay in their homes,” said William Miranda Torres, mayor of the northern town of Caguas, where at least one large landslide was reported, with water rushing down a big slab of broken asphalt and into a gully.
The storm also washed away a bridge in the central mountain town of Utuado that police say was installed by the National Guard after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017.
Fiona hit about 25km south-southeast of Mayaguez with maximum sustained winds of 140 kph, according to the US National Hurricane Centre.
It was moving to the north-west at 15 kph.
US President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in the US territory as the eye of the storm approached the island’s south-west corner.
Fiona was forecast to swipe the Dominican Republic today and then northern Haiti and the Turks and Caicos Islands with the threat of heavy rain.
It could threaten the far southern end of the Bahamas tomorrow.
In Japan, Nanmadol is forecast to continue dumping rain on its north-easterly path over Japan’s main island of Honshu, before moving over Tokyo and then north-eastern Japan.
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