Japan grounded hundreds of flights and urged tens of thousands of people to evacuate eastern areas on Friday, as Typhoon Ampil approached the country.
The storm is categorized as “very strong” by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). The agency has two higher categories—“very strong” and “violent.”
It was situated off the Pacific coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu at 3 p.m. local time on Friday and is expected to approach the eastern region of Kanto, which includes Tokyo, later into the evening.
The typhoon has wind speeds of around 100 mph, gusting up to 134 mph, according to the JMA.
“The Kanto region is expected to experience fierce winds that could cause injuries from flying debris or even overturn trucks in motion,” the JMA website warns.
Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture, northeast Japan, issued an evacuation order for about 323,000 residents, telling them the chance of heavy rain was likely to increase through Saturday morning.
East of Tokyo, Mobara City in Chiba Prefecture also ordered an evacuation for about 18,500 residents, while dozens of other cities opened special evacuation centres and advised voluntary evacuation.
Ampil has already caused power blackouts in the middle of a major summer holiday week and more than 2,500 households in the Kanto area were still experiencing blackouts on Friday afternoon, the Tokyo Electric Power Co said.
All Nippon Airways said it will cancel 281 domestic flights and 54 international flights due to either leave or arrive on Friday, with almost 70,000 passengers affected by the decision.
The airline later said it would also axe 32 domestic flights into or out of Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Saturday, disrupting travel plans for a further 2,300 passengers.
Likewise, Japan Airlines is planning to cancel 281 domestic and 38 international flights on Friday, affecting about 50,000 passengers.
All the “Shinkansen” bullet train services between Tokyo and Nagoya are also cancelled.
Restaurants, department stores and amusement parks were also either shut or operating on shortened business hours, with Tokyo Disneyland moving closing time to 3 p.m. from 9 p.m. on Friday.
The quake registered a magnitude of 7.1 on the Richter scale with its epicenter located in the sea off the eastern coast of the country’s southern main island of Kyushu at a depth of around 18.6 miles, according to the JMA.
Nichinan city and nearby areas in Miyazaki prefecture on Kyushu island were most strongly shaken with tsunami waves of up to 20 inches were detected along parts of the southern coast of Kyushu and on the nearby island of Shikoku around 30 minutes after the quake.
