At least 64 people were injured as Typhoon Lan passed through Japan to the Sea of Japan on Wednesday, leaving behind collapsed roads and bridges as well as stranded residents in small local districts.
According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, 49 people in nine prefectures in central to western Japan were reported to have sustained injuries, including 24 people just in Hyogo Prefecture, and 141 houses were damaged by the storm.
Typhoon Lan, which has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, ripped through several parts of Kansai the day before, causing heavy rain in the city of Tottori. The city released water from the Saji River dam and issued a Level 5 ※emergency safety assurance§ warning.
As the rain and wind subsided, the emergency notice was lifted. But on Wednesday morning, two bridges were found to have collapsed in the city, and roads were cut off. In total over 1,800 people in 844 households were left stranded due to impacts of the typhoon in Tottori Prefecture as of 9 a.m. Wednesday.
The Sajicho district in Tottori city saw hourly rainfall of 97.5 millimeters, the highest since statistics began in 1982. An hourly rainfall of 80 mm limits visibility, making even driving dangerous.
Overall, rainfall in the area reached nearly three times Tottori＊s average monthly rainfall for August. Between 12 p.m. on Monday to 5 a.m. on Wednesday, Sajicho saw more than 519 mm of rainfall.
While the storm is now in the Sea of Japan, the weather agency still encourages vigilance against landslides, river flooding and heavy wind from eastern to western Japan where continued impact is likely through Thursday.
Also on Wednesday morning, while the Tokaido and Sanyo shinkansen lines had not originally been scheduled for suspension, their operators announced a halt of inbound and outbound services between Tokyo Station and Hakata Station 〞 the city of Fukuoka＊s main station 〞 due to heavy rain in Shizuoka. Later in the afternoon, services resumed between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka.
Impacted stations like those in Osaka and Hiroshima were heavily crowded, with travelers looking for information on shinkansen departures. Some passengers found themselves stranded on the trains as services were suspended between Shizuoka and Kakegawa stations soon after operations were originally resumed in the morning.
The weather agency announced Wednesday afternoon that after Lan passes northward through the Sea of Japan, the storm will approach Hokkaido by Thursday night as an extratropical cyclone, further downgraded from a tropical storm.
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