TOKYO: The Japan Meteorological Agency briefly issued special heavy rain warnings for two Tokyo remote islands due to the approach of Typhoon Chan-hom on Saturday.

The agency issued the warnings for Miyakejima and Mikurajima, part of the Pacific island chain of Izu, at 5 p.m. (8 a.m. GMT), urging residents to secure their safety immediately.

A disaster is highly likely to have already occurred there, Yoshihisa Nakamoto, director of the agency’s Forecast Division, told a news conference.

The agency downgraded the special warnings to heavy rain warnings at 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

Due to the 14th typhoon of this year and a rain front, rainfall reached 86.0 millimeters on Miyakejima for an hour to around 5 p.m. Saturday and 584.5 millimeters for 72 hours to 11 p.m.

Rainfall is expected to reach 200 millimeters in the Izu island chain for 24 hours until midnight Sunday.

Evacuation orders were issued for 2,388 residents on Miyakejima and 313 residents on Mikurajima.

A woman in her 50s broke her left leg after falling down due to a strong wind in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan, Friday, according to the prefectural government.

At midnight Saturday, the typhoon was traveling eastward at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour about 140 kilometers south-southwest of Hachijojima in the Izu chain. It had a central atmospheric pressure of 985 hectopascals at its center, with a maximum wind speed of 30 meters per second.

JIJI Press