A large and powerful typhoon was moving toward the main archipelago Monday, with the Meteorological Agency warning of downpours, strong winds and high waves in southwestern and western Japan through Tuesday.
Typhoon Ma-on was located about 300 km northeast off Okinawa’s Minamidaito Island at noon Monday, traveling northward at about 25 kph, the agency said.
The season’s sixth typhoon could cause heavy rain Monday in areas ranging from Kyushu to the Pacific coast of central Japan and is expected to approach western to eastern Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The weather agency issued high wave warnings for most of the southern coast from Kyushu to southeast of Tokyo.
Due to the typhoon, airlines on Monday canceled a total of about 40 flights mainly to or from Kyushu and Okinawa.
Typhoons and tropical storms buffet the nation during the Northwestern Pacific cyclone season, in some cases damaging buildings and infrastructure. Ten tropical storms and typhoons hit Japan during 2004, killing more than 60 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
Tepco reactor lid rush
(Bloomberg) Tokyo Electric Power Co. is rushing to install a cover over a building at its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to shield it from wind and rain as Typhoon Ma-on approached the country’s coast from the south.
The cover will be placed over the turbine building of reactor 3 “momentarily,” Hajime Motojuku, a Tepco spokesman, said Sunday. The utility also detached a hose from a barge docked near the plant that stores contaminated water, he said, without elaborating.