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Strong typhoon sweeps over Japan's southernmost islands

22 Comments
By YURI KAGEYAMA

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22 Comments
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After almost two months of rainy season who brought floods in landslides, one month of scorching heat that brought many heat strokes, and now the typhoon season starts. All combined with covid. I need another beer

17 ( +18 / -1 )

2020 can seriously go eat a bowl...

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Please stay safe everyone.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

The extreme dry weather we have had can be a problem when combined with heavy typhoon rains. Hard packed ground won't absorb the rainwater, especially in pine forests. That means flooding.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Warnings issued for the area around Okinawa, home to U.S. military bases, said strong gusts could cause some homes to collapse and extremely high tides were a risk as well.

The odds of any homes here collapsing are slim at best. No need to over exaggerate things, when the typhoon itself is bad enough.

The overwhelming majority of homes and buildings here are made with steel reinforced concrete and are more than capable of withstanding the typhoons strongest winds.

Sure there is damage, trees down, a few roofs blown off of buildings that are built out of prefabricated sheet metal, and the outer facing of a large apartment building , was blown off, and landed on some cars in a parking lot, causing damage there too.

But no "homes to collapse", that happens in mainland!

Yesterday started Okinawa's O'bon, and many people, due to the emergency declaration in place for COVID, think that this was mother nature's way of tell people to stay home and dont go and visit the house of relatives who have the traditional family altar (like my house)

This will be the FIRST O'Bon in nearly 4 decades of living here that no one is coming over, because of the typhoon and covid

5 ( +11 / -6 )

@timeon. I recommend we have an Olympic Games in this season

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Ah! That time of the year again...

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Please stay safe and everyone.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Yubaru, this one is bad for Okinawa and maybe the edge of Kyushu, but as you say it's Typhoon No. 10 for Sunday that for some reason has been getting ZERO mention in the mainland mass media over the last few days.

Forecast to cut through Shikoku and through the Chugoku district of Western Japan, No.10 looks like a sucker punch, a bowling ball to the solar plexus.

Is this because it has not yet been 'officially' designated as a Typhoon, I wonder, or because Japan likes to deal with one thing at a time?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Every time I finish cutting the grass, strong rain, the hot sun and have to start again.

i strongly recommend people stock up on things like string, tape, plastic sheets, buckets, candles, cassette cookers etc. I’ve had windows broken and roof leaks and a 2 day power cut.

also cut trees that may fall or break power/phone/internet lines. Park cars in safe sheltered high ground.

dont trust NHK weather forecasts 100%

4 ( +5 / -1 )

After almost two months of rainy season who brought floods in landslides, one month of scorching heat that brought many heat strokes, and now the typhoon season starts. All combined with covid. I need another beer

Typhoon season starts in June. And having a beer isnt enough, take a shot or two with it!

It's really just a part of life here.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Yubaru, I keep the shots for more hardcore stuff, big Kanto earthquake, Mt. Fuji eruption, etc.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Folks in mainland, mainly Shikoku, should be more worried about what is coming to them (forecasted) this coming Sunday!

Believe me the doomsday posters are going to crawl out of the woodwork for this one!

https://www.windy.com/-Wind-gusts-gust?gust,2020-09-06-06,29.468,133.176,6,m:ewSajQV

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Yubaru, this one is bad for Okinawa 

Lol...obviously you haven't lived through a "bad" typhoon here. I have lived through well over a hundred typhoons in Okinawa, and this was, on a scale of 1 to 10, MAYBE a 4.

Is this because it has not yet been 'officially' designated as a Typhoon, I wonder, or because Japan likes to deal with one thing at a time?

No really, its because typically the JMA only gives forecasts for 3 days ahead when talking about typhoons, because they get a crap load of "feedback" from the public if they are wrong, same with NHK TV.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

daito_hak, Yubaru is talking about the houses on Okinawa.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

its going straight for North korea

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Lol...obviously you haven't lived through a "bad" typhoon here. 

This is true, to a certain extent. I have lived through maybe 50-80 typhoons, in various places on Honshu, but probably nowhere near as bad as Okinawa which seems to act as a gun sight for every typhoon lining up. My house here with old wooden window frames and thin frosted glass is not built to stand up to a strong one, and I always wonder if the wind will not one day blow with just too much force from the wrong direction. Hang in there folks. The season is just getting started!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The odds of any homes here collapsing are slim at best. No need to over exaggerate things, when the typhoon itself is bad enough.

The overwhelming majority of homes and buildings here are made with steel reinforced concrete and are more than capable of withstanding the typhoons strongest winds.

It's amazing how people either have a very short memory, or are just in denial of reality, or just enjoy being flat out wrong. Here, last year typhoon Hagibis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj8P0ZbtKwI

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20191021/p2a/00m/0na/016000c

By the type of damage, 122 houses were completely destroyed due to the effects of Typhoon Hagibis, while 864 houses were partially destroyed and 2,682 houses suffered minor damage. As the typhoon caused flooding of rivers and levee breaches in many parts of eastern Japan, 29,982 houses were inundated with water above floor level, while 23,103 residences suffered underfloor flooding.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Typhoon 9 is a serious and dangerous category 4 typhoon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Pacific_typhoon_season#Current_storm_information

It passed by the main island with winds of up to 54m/s, they are extremely dangerous winds and they are still blowing hard. The majority of homes in Okinawa are made from RCB or concrete blocks. Traditional homes are very low and have stone walls around them, however, over the last decade or so there are certainly more wooden homes being built. A really bad idea, no matter how “advanced” the build is. You’re opening yourself and others up to disaster. The climate “loves” wood here, and two storey -- or more! -- wooden homes -- with eaves!! -- will be damaged or totally destroyed in Cat 3 and above typhoons. That debris then becomes airborne and then causes mayhem all over the place.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Yubaru

The odds of any homes here collapsing are slim at best. No need to over exaggerate things, when the typhoon itself is bad enough.

For the next typhoon, I would like to swap houses with you. Then you come back here and think again

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Its about time we finally have a typhoon. Normally i thought they start in August? Lets hope the typhoon blows the covid-19 out of Japan and back to China haha

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Usually just a bit of strong wind. Nothing much to get excited about.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

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