Tokyo, Aug 14 (EFE).- Japan is anticipating hundreds of flight and train cancellations due to Tuesday’s expected landfall of Typhoon Lan along the country’s Pacific coast.
Japan Airlines airplanes on the tarmac at Tokyo International Airport in Tokyo, Japan, 26 February 2010. EPA-EFE FILE/EVERETT KENNEDY BROWN
The seventh typhoon of the Pacific season is expected to mainly affect the center and west of the archipelago.
Railway company JR Central has announced that the high-speed Tokaido Shinkansen line will be totally suspended on Tuesday between the stations of Nagoya and Shin-Osaka, while JR West has warned that operations between Shin-Osaka and Okayama could also be significantly affected.
The number of trains that cover the route between Tokyo and Nagoya will be considerably reduced, and although in principle no suspension of operations has been planned for Monday and Wednesday, the operating company has warned about the possibility of sudden changes.
Japan Airlines announced the suspension for Monday of 19 flights to and from Itami, and another 240 flights on Tuesday have been canceled, affecting some 24,800 travelers.
At 9.45 am local time (00:45 GMT) Monday, Lan was about 220 kilometers southeast of the Kishimoto coast, Wakayama prefecture, and was moving at 15 kilometers per hour in a northwesterly direction, according to data from the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The typhoon, which had remained almost static for several days before heading towards the Japanese archipelago, carries gusts of wind of up to 198kph and on Monday was already producing rain in large regions of the island of Shikoku and in Kanto region, on the island of Honshu, where Tokyo is located.
The meteorological authorities have warned of rain and electrical storms in large areas of the country on Tuesday, and have called for extreme caution amid potential for high winds, floods, river overflows and landslides.
The approach of the typhoon has coincided with the closing of the Obon festive period, in which the dead are remembered and during which many people travel for family reunions.
On Sunday, train stations, airports and highways were congested as many chose to return home ahead of Lan’s arrival and foreseeable disruptions.
Lan is set to arrive not long after the passage of Khanun, which in the last two weeks hit the southwest of the Japanese archipelago and the Korean peninsula, causing extensive flooding, extensive material damage and several deaths. EFE
mra/tw
