Last Updated on September 7, 2020, 10:23 AM AST by Anthony Morris
A powerful typhoon flooded roads, damaged buildings and knocked out power to thousands of homes in South Korea on Monday after it battered southern Japanese islands. Over 20 people were injured.
The Korea Meteorological Administration has issued a warning of very heavy rain and strong winds as Typhoon Haishen, with maximum winds of 126 kilometres per hour, made landfall in the southeastern city of Ulsan.
The weather agency has said the typhoon, which is the third to hit the peninsula in as many weeks, is weakening and would likely be downgraded to a tropical storm within 24 hours.
Cars struggled to move through flooded roads in Ulsan and other coastal cities such as Sokcho, Busan and Gangneung. Emergency workers rushed to clean up toppled trees and damaged buildings, traffic signs, and other structures.
It was said by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety that a person in Busan was lightly injured after a car flipped because of strong winds, but it did not immediately provide further reports regarding the casualties.
According to the Korea Airports Corporation, at least 318 flights flying in and out of the southern island province of Jeju as well as across the mainland were cancelled.
Some railroad sections and bridges were shut down, thousands of fishing boats and other vessels were moved to safety, and more than 1,600 residents of the southern mainland regions were evacuated because of the possibility of landslides and other concerns.
Workers as of Monday morning completed restoring power to 11,523 of the 17,620 households that had lost electricity in the southern mainland areas and Jeju.
Haishen, which means “sea god” in Chinese, passed through Okinawa and other southern Japanese islands over the weekend.
Traffic was still paralyzed in places; bullet trains were suspended, and most domestic flights in and out of southwestern Japanese airports were cancelled Monday.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
