Japan: Typhoon Trami kills two as it brushes past Tokyo

At least two people have been killed and scores injured by a powerful typhoon that brought down trees onto railway tracks and kicked up debris across Tokyo as it brushed past the Japanese capital.

Typhoon Trami, which made landfall in western Japan on Sunday evening, reached Tokyo on Monday, bringing heavy rains and strong winds.

The typhoon, rated by Tropical Storm Risk as a category 1, the lowest on a five-point scale, killed two people and injured almost 130, public broadcaster NHK said.

It added that another two people were missing and almost 400,000 households were without power in multiple cities.

Aerial footage on NHK showed hundreds of people waiting outside train stations, with several major commuter lines closed since Sunday. More than 230 flights were cancelled, mainly in northern Japan, NHK said.

Kansai International Airport in Osaka in western Japan said it had opened its runways as scheduled at 6am (21:00 GMT Sunday), after being closed since 11am on Sunday.

The airport had only fully reopened on September 21 after being heavily flooded earlier that month by another typhoon called Jebi. 

I had 1 full day of exploration around the city of #Naha on #Okinawa island yesterday – the day after #typhoon #Trami ravaged #Japan‘s southern #Ryukyu islands.

Life was getting back to normal with plenty of clean-up to do. Here are 2 examples of the #destruction I came across. pic.twitter.com/lRgicvMRek

— World Traveler (@live4sights) October 1, 2018

Japan issued evacuation orders and warnings to hundreds of thousands of households in southern and western Japan because of Typhoon Trami, which has also led to flight cancellations in several cities.

After Tokyo, Trami will head towards Japan ‘s northeast. It is expected to cross the islands of Kyushu and the main island of Honshu between Sunday and Monday, a path similar to that taken Typhoon Jebi early in September.

Jebi, the most powerful storm to hit Japan in 25 years, hit Japan between late August and early September, bringing some of the highest tides to the country since a 1961 typhoon.

Some western regions are still recovering from Typhoon Jebi, which claimed 11 lives.

Deadly record rainfall hit western Japan earlier this year and the country sweltered through one of the hottest summers on record.

Also in September a magnitude 6.6 earthquake rocked the northern island of Hokkaido, sparking landslides and leaving more than 40 people dead.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies