Typhoon Neoguri batters Japan’s southern main Island

A powerful typhoon has stuck Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu after battering the Okinawa island chain, where it left three people dead.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency said typhoon Neoguri landed near Akune City, on the western coast of Kyushu Island at 7 a.m. local time on Thursday.

Kyushu Island is home to more than 10 million people and lies next to Japan’s biggest island of Honshu, where major cities including Tokyo and Osaka are located.

The Japanese government is set to hold a disaster-management meeting on Thursday to discuss how to best cope with the storm, which is forecast to move further along the Japanese archipelago after passing over Kyushu.

Neoguri crossed the Japanese island of Okinawa, just under 500 kilometers southeast of Kyushu On July 7. Authorities in Okinawa had advised 600,000 of the island’s 1.2 million residents to evacuate their homes amid storm surges and power cuts. According to reports, at least three people were killed and dozens more injured in the typhoon.

Local sources said a mudslide swallowed a house, killing a 12-year-old boy on Wednesday. Japan’s coastguard and local police also said a 62-year-old man was found dead after the typhoon knocked him off his boat in southwestern Kochi Prefecture a day earlier. The Japan’s NHK broadcaster also said an 81-year-old fisherman died in southwestern Kumamoto Prefecture.

Typhoon Neoguri damaged buildings, downed trees and cancelled hundreds of flights with gusts of over 250 kilometers (155 miles) per hour earlier this week. The typhoon’s winds, however, relatively slowed overnight, with the storm packing gusts of up to 90 kilometers an hour as it moved east at 25 kilometers per hour.