CNN
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More than a million people in southern Japan were ordered to evacuate as Typhoon Shanshan made landfall on Thursday, leaving thousands of residents without power and battering the island of Kyushu with gusty winds, torrential rain and dangerous storm surges.
Japan’s meteorological agency issued a rare emergency warning ahead of the storm, saying devastating floods and landslides were expected across much of Kyushu, the country’s southernmost main island.
Japanese authorities warned on Thursday that a “life-threatening situation” was looming for towns in Oita Prefecture on Kyushu and urged another 57,000 people to evacuate and take “life-saving measures” while issuing the highest typhoon warning level.
The center of the storm is now about 70 kilometers north of the city of Kagoshima after it reached the mainland with wind speeds of up to 185 km/h.
Video from Miyazaki, near where the storm made landfall, showed fallen power poles and streets littered with branches and other debris.
Shanshan weakened before landfall, but is bringing massive amounts of rain to the island as it creeps north at 8 mph (13 kph). Slower storms can be more destructive, with strong gusts or rainstorms that lash the same areas for hours or days.
Rainfall has already reached 0.5 metres (20 inches) in many areas, and meteorologists predict total rainfall could reach up to 1 metre (40 inches) in some remote and hilly regions.
More than 255,150 households on Kyushu were without power on Thursday morning, according to Kyushu Electric Power.
And Japan’s two largest airlines, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways (ANA), announced more than 400 flight cancellations ahead of the storm.
Shanshan is expected to turn east and move through Kyushu, where it will weaken to a tropical storm by the end of Thursday.
It will continue to move slowly over southwestern Japan before advancing into more central regions as a much weaker storm over the weekend and even into early next week.
In the rest of Japan, the greatest danger remains widespread, significant rainfall, with some areas on Shikoku and Honshu expected to receive over 0.5 metres (20 inches).