Typhoon Tapah Disrupts Hundreds of Domestic Flights in Japan and South Korea
Hundreds of domestic flights in Japan were canceled because of Typhoon Tapah, and the storm caused similar disruptions in South Korea as it moved to make landfall later Sunday.
Airlines operating in Japan called off more than 420 domestic flights as of 2 p.m. Sunday due to the typhoon, the national broadcaster NHK reported. More than 390 flights have been canceled in South Korea as 4 p.m. local time, Yonhap reported.
The storm disruptions in Japan led ANA Holdings Inc. to earlier say it canceled 151 flights, while Japan Airlines Co Ltd. called off 126 as of 4 p.m., the carriers said.
In Japan, most of the cancellations centered on the southwestern island of Kyushu. The typhoon battered Japan’s southern Okinawa islands on Saturday, with heavy rain and strong winds, injuring 19 people, according to the Sankei newspaper. Around 2,500 households were without power in Nagasaki and Kagoshima prefectures as of Sunday evening, according to Kyushu Electric Power Co.
Tapah is expected to move up the strait between South Korea and Japan, and make landfall in South Korea on Sunday, packing wind gusts of up to 126 kilometers (78 miles) per hour, according to Korea’s national weather agency.
In South Korea’s southeastern port city of Busan, one person was found dead on Sunday after the roof of her house collapsed under heavy rains, Yonhap reported. The typhoon’s strong winds knocked down some trees and titled a traffic light and a telegraph pole in the southern island of Jeju, it said.
Vietnamese airlines also changed flight schedules due to Tapah, according to local media. VietJet said it canceled some domestic and international flights on Sunday, according to an emailed statement.
–With assistance from Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen.