TOKYO: Large Typhoon Nanmadol is forecast to head for Yamaguchi Prefecture in western Japan and the nearby Sanin region after traveling through the Kyushu southwestern region from Sunday night to Monday morning.

At least two people were killed Monday when the storm ripped through the Kyushu region, with one of the fatalities being a man found in a car that had been submerged in Miyazaki Prefecture. About 70 others were injured, according to NHK.

The 14th typhoon of the year, which is no longer extremely powerful, is expected to travel off the Sea of Japan on Monday night and then may head for the Hokuriku central region and the Tohoku northeastern region toward Tuesday morning.

The Japan Meteorological Agency put people mainly in eastern and western Japan on high alert for violent winds, high waves and high tides, as well as landslides and river flooding from heavy rain.

The agency downgraded its special warnings for strong winds, high waves and high tides issued on Saturday evening in Kagoshima Prefecture in Kyushu to warnings or advisories or lifted them by 8 a.m. Monday (11 p.m. Sunday GMT). A special heavy rain warning issued for most areas in Miyazaki Prefecture, also in Kyushu, was lowered to a warning at 11 a.m. Monday.

“It is really raining heavily,” Ryuta Kurora, director at the agency’s Forecast Division, told a press conference, urging people not to lower the guard since landslides could happen some time after the rain stops.

In the city of Miyakonojo in Miyazaki, a man in his 60s was confirmed dead after being found in a submerged car on Monday.

As of Monday morning, one person in Miyazaki and another in Ehime Prefecture, part of the Shikoku western region, were seriously injured in the typhoon, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. A total of 15 people in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Shikoku and Kyushu were slightly injured.

In Kyushu, about 560,000 people from some 270,000 households were urged to take actions immediately to protect their lives. Evacuation orders were issued for roughly 9.16 million people from about 4.3 million households in western Japan.

A linear precipitation zone, or a band of cumulonimbus clouds that causes especially heavy rain, may be formed in northern Kyushu, Shikoku, the Chugoku western region, the Kinki western region and the Tokai central region.

As of 11 a.m. Monday, Typhoon Nanmadol traveled northeast around the city of Yamaguchi, the capital of Yamaguchi Prefecture, part of the Chugoku region, at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour. With a central atmospheric pressure of 975 hectopascals, the typhoon had a maximum wind speed of 30 meters per second and a maximum instantaneous wind speed of 45 meters per second, according to the meteorological agency.

The city of Shikokuchuo in Ehime recorded a maximum instantaneous wind speed of 47.4 meters per second around 1:55 a.m. Monday.

In the city of Higashikagawa in Kagawa Prefecture, located in the Shikoku region, rainfall in the hour until shortly after 4 a.m. reached 60.5 millimeters.

In the town of Misato in Miyazaki, the amount of rain between midnight Wednesday, when it started, and 11 a.m. Monday totaled 985 millimeters.

On Monday, the maximum instantaneous wind speed is forecast to reach 45 meters per second in Chugoku, Shikoku, Kinki and northern Kyushu, and 35 meters in Tokai, Hokuriku and southern Kyushu.

The maximum wave height is estimated at 10 meters in Shikoku, 8 meters in Tokai, Kinki, Chugoku and northern Kyushu, 6 meters in the Kanto eastern region and southern Kyushu, and 5 meters in Hokuriku and the Amami region in Kagoshima.

In the 24 hours to 6 a.m. Tuesday, rainfall is forecast to total up to 400 millimeters in Tokai, up to 300 millimeters in Kinki, Kanto and the Koshin central region, up to 250 millimeters in Shikoku, up to 150 millimeters in Tohoku, Hokuriku, Chugoku and the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, and up to 100 millimeters in northern Kyushu.

JIJI Press