Typhoon Bolaven hammered into Japan’s southernmost islands, forcing flight cancellations, the closure of an oil refinery and one of the highest weather alerts at the Kadena U.S. military base on Okinawa.
As much as 50 millimeters (2 inches) of rain per hour was falling in parts of Okinawa, Japan’s weather agency said. Landslide and high wave warnings were issued as wind gusts reached 213 kph. Video by Japan’s public broadcaster NHK showed tree limbs being snapped in Naha, Okinawa’s capital.
“My yard is getting filled with water,” Sayaka Higa said by phone, adding the storm forced her to stay home from her job as a spokeswoman at the U.S. military’s Kadena Air Base about 18 kilometers north of Naha.
Japan Airlines Co. canceled 98 domestic flights to Okinawa and surrounding islands, the carrier said on its website. Some international flights are also affected. All Nippon Airways Co. (9202) also canceled flights to the region and advised passengers to check with the airline.
Bolaven was about 305 kilometers (190 miles) north- northwest of Naha, a city of 321,000, at 11:45 a.m. local time, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. It had sustained winds of 148 kilometers per hour (92 mph), making it a Category 1 storm, the weakest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
Refinery Shuts
Nansei Sekiyu KK halted refining and shipping operations at its 100,000 barrel-a-day Nishihara plant in Okinawa, the company said in an e-mail today.
Refining operations and marine shipping were halted on Aug. 25, while truck terminal operations were halted yesterday, the company said.
The Kadena Air Base was placed under Typhoon Condition-1 Recovery alert, meaning winds of 63 kph to 91 kph are affecting the base, according to its website. The alert means that only emergency personnel are permitted to leave their quarters.
The storm is forecast to move northwest toward the Korean peninsula today and may pass to the west of Seoul as a Category 1 storm tomorrow, the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center said on its website.
Bolaven is the name for a plateau in Laos, according to the Hong Kong Observatory, which lists names assigned to storms in the northwest Pacific.
To contact the reporters on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net; Jacob Adelman in Tokyo at jadelman1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Teo Chian Wei at cwteo@bloomberg.net
