Narita International Airport
A POWERFUL storm has made landfall in Hokkaido, triggering warnings of floods, landslides and waves in Japan’s northernmost prefecture.
Before hitting Hokkaido’s southern coast around 06.00 today, the storm was downgraded from a typhoon by weather authorities.
Seperately, Typhoon Mindulle travelled through Japan’s northeastern prefectures, including Iwate on Monday night, having damaged Tokyo and grounding hundreds of flights that afternoon.
Over 400 domestic services to and from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport were cancelled. Meanwhile, Narita International Airport, located further afield from Tokyo, cancelled 88 international and 34 domestic flights.
Narita’s control tower was temporarily closed as wind speeds soared. The airport runway also shut down, suspending all operations for about an hour.
Express trains halted services temporarily as well although most commuter services continued operating normally.
Some reports place casualty numbers at two so far. This is the first typhoon to directly hit Japan’s capital city in 11 years.
