Saturday, October 09, 2004

TerraDaily has this, through Agence France-Presse: Strongest typhoon in decade set to strike Tokyo. Here's the gist:
Typhoon Ma-on, packing winds of up to 162 kilometres (100 miles), slammed into the central Japan prefecture of Shizuoka around 4:00 pm (0700 GMT) and was on course to hit the capital, the Meteorological Agency warned.

A 74-year-old newspaper deliveryman went missing in the town of Onjuku in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, local police said.

"He is feared to have been washed away in a swollen river," a police official said, adding his motorbike had been found turning over on its side near the river.

A gust of 243.4 kilometres (151 miles) per hour was recorded at a Shizuoka cape of Irozaki, some 150 kilometres (93 miles) south of Tokyo.

More than 3,800 households in central and eastern Japan were ordered or recommended to evacuate, public network Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) said.

"Shinkansen" bullet trains ground to a halt in central and eastern Japan, affecting tens of thousands of passengers. Train station officials with loudspeakers were seen urging holidaymakers to cancel their schedules.

Express roads were partially closed while nearly 200 domestic and international flights were cancelled.

As you can see, a great storm like that can have effects far beyond its immediate center. This is a mere taste of the sort of disasters (which is actually ancient Greek for "evil stars") that await us as prophecy gallops toward fulfillment.

No comments: