Japan city evacuates 90,000 as Typhoon Neoguri nears Kyushu - News Spear

Japan city evacuates 90,000 as Typhoon Neoguri nears Kyushu - News Spear

Agencies: Typhoon Neoguri headed toward Japan’s southernmost main island of Kyushu, prompting the evacuation of almost 90,000 people amid the threat of floods and landslides. Neoguri was west of Kyushu with top winds reaching 162 kilometers (101 miles) per hour, down from yesterday’s 252 kph, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The storm, which was heading northeast as of 3:55 pm local time, left 20 injured in Okinawa yesterday, where it grounded flights and prompted evacuations. Parts of Kyushu will probably be hit by tomorrow with violent winds, swollen rivers and waves up to 10 meters high, the weather agency reported on its website.

Officials in the Kyushu city of Amakusa urged 87,327 residents today to take shelter in gyms and other buildings being used as evacuation centers, as the storm threatened homes, public broadcaster NHK reported on its website. Companies with Kyushu factories, including Nissan Motor Co. and Toshiba Corp. (6502), were watching the storm’s approach.

“We instructed factories and offices in Japan to take measures for safety against the approaching typhoon,” said Yu Takase, a spokeswoman for Toshiba, which has a chip factory in Kyushu’s Oita prefecture. “Right now, our factories are operating as usual.” Nissan and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) were monitoring the storm and planned to decide on any countermeasures to be taken tomorrow by this evening, the companies said.

Toyota and Nissan built 1.32 million vehicles at their four plants in Kyushu last year, Satomi Hamada, a production analyst for IHS Automotive, wrote in an e-mail. Nissan’s two plants on the island accounted for 65 percent of the company’s domestic production last year, while Toyota’s portion was 18 percent.

The storm’s was expected to pivot east as Neoguri interacts with a low-pressure system over Manchuria, said Jim Andrews, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College,Pennsylvania. The low has created a vigorous westerly jet stream that will push the storm into Kyushu. “The storm is clearly weakening,” he said. “We’re thinking more a minimal typhoon or a strong tropical storm as it crosses the southwest coast of Kyushu.”