20/07/2011 14:53
55 people suffered the typhoon
Typhoon Ma-On hit Japan early Tuesday morning local time, injuring dozens as it crossed the southern part of Tokushima prefecture on Shikoku, Kyodo News reported, the Herald Sun reports.
Torrential rain and lashing winds from the typhoon injured at least 47 people in 15 prefectures, while another person was reported missing and public transportation was disrupted, Kyodo News reported.
Sustained winds of 87 miles per hour and gusts of over 100 mph are moving north and then east. The category 1 storm is expected to cross to the northeast over the next few days, causing dangerous conditions along the coast, the sources report.
"Storms of the kind that Ma-On is likely to become can unload over a foot of rainfall, with flooding and mudslides, upon reaching Japan," meteorologist Dave Samuhel reported.
Powerful winds also overturned a truck on the Seto-Chuo Expressway, with the driver suffering slight injuries, police told Kyodo.
Stars and Stripes reported that the typhoon had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
Bloomberg reported that airlines have canceled about 40 flights on Monday due to the typhoon, mainly to or from Kyushu and Okinawa. Ma-On is the sixth typhoon of the 2011 season, which runs in the western Pacific Ocean primarily between May and November.