Typhoon Maysak: Ship with 43 crew and nearly 6,000 cattle missing off coast of Japan
Japan’s coastguard has rescued one person in the search for a cargo ship carrying livestock that went missing in the East China Sea after issuing a distress signal as Typhoon Maysak lashed the region.
The Gulf Livestock 1 departed Napier in New Zealand on August 14 with 5,867 cattle and 43 crew members on board, bound for the Port of Jingtang in Tangshan, China. The journey was expected to take about 17 days, New Zealand’s foreign ministry said.
The ship sent a distress call from the west of Amami Oshima island in southwestern Japan. Strong winds and rains from the typhoon were hampering rescue efforts.
The crew was made up of 39 members from the Philippines, two from New Zealand, and two from Australia, the coastguard said.
A spokeswoman for the coastguard said one person was rescued on Wednesday night during the search for the ship after being spotted adrift wearing a life jacket.
New Zealand’s foreign ministry said it was providing consular assistance to the families of two New Zealanders aboard.
Heavy winds and rain lashed much of the Korean peninsula on Thursday after Maysak made landfall, even as damage from a previous typhoon last week was still being repaired and a third typhoon gathered strength off the coast.
Maysak, the ninth typhoon of the season and the fourth to hit the peninsula this year, was among the strongest to strike Korea in years, and is expected to affect most of North and South Korea.
Some areas on the southern resort island of Jeju reported more than 1,000 millimetres (39 inches) in rainfall since Tuesday, and the typhoon left some 120,000 households without power across the country, according to the weather agency and interior ministry.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled and delayed, and the southern city of Busan in South Korea saw heavy winds as the storm’s track placed it squarely in its path.
Typhoon and heavy rain warnings were issued for much of the rest of South Korea, which earlier this year saw the longest stretch of rainy weather on record, leading to deadly floods and landslides
North Korea took the brunt of last week’s Typhoon Bavi, and on Thursday, state media reported that the country’s premier, Kim Tok Hun, had toured flood-hit areas and discussed ways to limit damage from Typhoon Maysak.
For a second week in a row, North Korea’s state TV carried overnight reports on Wednesday and Thursday showing storm surge and flooding, including in the coastal town on Wonsan.
On Tuesday state news agency KCNA reported that measures were being taken across the country to fix street lights and roofs, inspect infrastructure, monitor water levels, and move ships to safe anchorages.
“Officials of the Party and power organs at all levels are conducting intensive information campaign among people to let them deep understand the importance of work for preventing typhoon damage and methods of coping with its crisis,” KCNA said.
North Korea’s agriculture sector is particularly vulnerable to severe weather, and this summer’s storms and floods have raised concern’s over the country’s already tenuous food situation.
Typhoon Haishen, meanwhile, is forecast to make its way toward South Korea by early next week.
Typhoon pummels South Korea with flooding, damaging winds
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A powerful typhoon ripped through South Korea’s southern and eastern coasts with tree-snapping winds and flooding rains Thursday, knocking out power to more than 270,000 homes and leaving at least one person dead.
With winds blowing up to 126 kilometers (78 miles) per hour, Typhoon Maysak was offshore east of the city of Sokcho on Thursday morning and heading toward North Korea, said South Korea’s weather agency. It expected Maysak to weaken to a tropical storm within hours.
North Korea’s state TV showed widespread flooding in the eastern coastal cities of Wonsan and Tanchon, but the country didn’t immediately report any casualties.
Japan’s coast guard was searching for a livestock ship carrying 42 crew members that made a distress call off a southern Japanese island in seas roughened by the typhoon. Rescuers safely plucked one crew member from the sea, but information wasn’t immediately available on the reason for the ship’s distress.
More than 2,400 South Koreans evacuated their homes due to the typhoon, which damaged or flooded dozens of homes and vehicles, ripped off signboards and toppled scores of trees, utility poles and lampposts. A woman in the southern city of Busan died after being injured by shattered window glass.
Four nuclear power reactors near Busan automatically shut down because of electricity supply issues, but no leak of radioactive materials was detected, South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.
As of Thursday morning, officials have managed to restore electricity to about 199,400 of the 278,600 homes that lost power. The outages were mainly in southern mainland regions including Busan and the southern resort island of Jeju.
More than 950 domestic flights were canceled while rail services in some southern and eastern regions were halted due to safety concerns.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency had said officials were working urgently to minimize damage from Maysak, which was forecast to make landfall in the country’s northeastern region in the afternoon.
KCNA said buildings, roads, railways, cropland and drainage systems were examined and fishing boats were moved to safety, while “scrupulous” protective measures were applied to power stations to ensure stable power supply during the storm.
Maysak caused mostly minor damage on the Japanese island of Okinawa on Tuesday and is the second typhoon to hit the Korean Peninsula in as many weeks.
Typhoon Bavi damaged homes, buildings and crops on the peninsula last week but caused no apparent casualties.
Another storm in the Pacific was blowing north and forecast to affect northern Asia by the weekend. Tropical Storm Haishen, with sustained winds of up to 90 kph (56 mph), could gain in ferocity before slamming into Japan’s southern islands of Kyushu and Shikoku before reaching the Korean Peninsula on Monday.
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AP writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this story from Tokyo.
Typhoon Maysak lashes South Korea
At least one person was killed and more than 2,000 people evacuated to temporary shelters in South Korea as a powerful typhoon churned across the peninsula, authorities said Thursday.
Typhoon Maysak — named after the Cambodian word for a type of tree — made landfall early Thursday in Busan on the southern coast, knocking down traffic lights and trees and flooding streets.
A woman was killed after a strong gust shattered her apartment window in Busan, while a man in his 60s was injured when the wind toppled an outdoor refrigerator, crushing him.
More than 2,200 people evacuated to temporary shelters and around 120,000 homes left without power throughout the night across southern parts of the country and on Jeju Island.
Maysak was making its way up the eastern side of the peninsula into the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea, packing gusts of up to 140 kilometres per hour (87 miles per hour).
„The typhoon’s influence on our country will gradually weaken,” South Korea’s Meteorological Administration said, forecasting heavy downpours and strong winds in eastern areas.
Maysak was forecast to make landfall again in North Korea at around 0300 GMT at Kimchaek, in North Hamgyong province.
Natural disasters tend to have a greater impact in the North due to its creaking infrastructure, and the country is vulnerable to flooding as many mountains and hills have long been deforested.
Pyongyang’s state media was on high alert, carrying live broadcasts of the situation.
„The trait of this typhoon is that it has brought heavy precipitation,” said a news reporter for Korean Central Television in its early morning newscast, standing in an inundated street in the eastern port of Wonsan.
„The total precipitation from 21:00 on September 2 to 6:00 on September 3 is 200 millimetres (around eight inches),” he added.
Maysak is the second typhoon in a week to hit the peninsula.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week visited a farming region hit by Typhoon Bavi and expressed relief the damage was „smaller than expected”.
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Typhoon pummels South Korea with flooding, damaging winds
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A powerful typhoon ripped through South Korea’s southern and eastern coasts with tree-snapping winds and flooding rains Thursday, knocking out power to more than 270,000 homes and leaving at least one person dead.
With winds blowing up to 126 kilometers (78 miles) per hour, Typhoon Maysak was offshore east of the city of Sokcho on Thursday morning and heading toward North Korea, said South Korea’s weather agency. It expected Maysak to weaken to a tropical storm within hours.
North Korea’s state TV showed widespread flooding in the eastern coastal cities of Wonsan and Tanchon, but the country didn’t immediately report any casualties.
Japan’s coast guard was searching for a livestock ship carrying 42 crew members that made a distress call off a southern Japanese island in seas roughened by the typhoon. Rescuers safely plucked one crew member from the sea, but information wasn’t immediately available on the reason for the ship’s distress.
More than 2,400 South Koreans evacuated their homes due to the typhoon, which damaged or flooded dozens of homes and vehicles, ripped off signboards and toppled scores of trees, utility poles and lampposts. A woman in the southern city of Busan died after being injured by shattered window glass.
Four nuclear power reactors near Busan automatically shut down because of electricity supply issues, but no leak of radioactive materials was detected, South Korea’s Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.
As of Thursday morning, officials have managed to restore electricity to about 199,400 of the 278,600 homes that lost power. The outages were mainly in southern mainland regions including Busan and the southern resort island of Jeju.
More than 950 domestic flights were canceled while rail services in some southern and eastern regions were halted due to safety concerns.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency had said officials were working urgently to minimize damage from Maysak, which was forecast to make landfall in the country’s northeastern region in the afternoon.
KCNA said buildings, roads, railways, cropland and drainage systems were examined and fishing boats were moved to safety, while “scrupulous” protective measures were applied to power stations to ensure stable power supply during the storm.
Maysak caused mostly minor damage on the Japanese island of Okinawa on Tuesday and is the second typhoon to hit the Korean Peninsula in as many weeks.
Typhoon Bavi damaged homes, buildings and crops on the peninsula last week but caused no apparent casualties.
Another storm in the Pacific was blowing north and forecast to affect northern Asia by the weekend. Tropical Storm Haishen, with sustained winds of up to 90 kph (56 mph), could gain in ferocity before slamming into Japan’s southern islands of Kyushu and Shikoku before reaching the Korean Peninsula on Monday.
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AP writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this story from Tokyo.
Nana strengthens into hurricane as it barrels toward Belize
PUNTA GORDA, Belize (AP) — Hurricane Nana barreled westward Wednesday just off the coast of Honduras on a collision course with the Central American nation of Belize, where thousands of people were stocking up on food, water and construction materials.
Long lines stretched through supermarkets and hardware store shelves were nearly bare as residents of Belize bought materials to board up windows and doors ahead of Nana’s expected landfall early Thursday as a hurricane.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center reported that Nana was located about 60 miles (95 kilometers) southeast of Belize City with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), making it a hurricane. The storm was moving at 16 mph (26 kph).
Belize issued a hurricane warning for its coastline. Heavy rains were expected in Belize, as well as in northern Honduras and throughout Guatemala as the storm crosses the isthmus Thursday.
Local leaders in rural villages in the southernmost district of Toledo were awaiting word from the National Emergency Management Organization to open hurricane shelters.
As evening approached, dark clouds hung on the horizon as uneasy residents awaited the storm’s arrival.
Hurricane Nana forms; two tropical waves forecast to merge in Atlantic
Hurricane Nana formed Wednesday night, becoming the sixth hurricane of the 2020 season. It is forecast to make landfall in Belize overnight, the National Hurricane Center said.
The center is also tracking a tropical depression and two tropical waves, which for now pose no threat to land.
As of the 11 p.m. update, Hurricane Nana was packing 75-mph winds and is about 60 miles southeast of Belize City. Nana is expected to see little change in strength before it makes landfall, where it is forecast to rapidly weaken as it moves inland.
“Nana will make landfall along the coast of Belize within the Hurricane Warning area overnight, and move inland over Belize and Guatemala on Thursday,” forecasters said.
The Category 1 hurricane has hurricane-force winds extending 10 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extending up to 70 miles.
The hurricane watch covering most of Belize’s eastern coast was upgraded to a hurricane warning Wednesday morning. The northern end of the coast remained under a hurricane watch. Guatemala’s Caribbean coast, the southern end of the Yucatán Peninsula, Isla Roatán and the Bay Islands of Honduras were under a tropical storm warning Wednesday. The northern coast of Honduras was under a tropical storm watch.
The hurricane center said the storm could bring 1 to 3 feet of storm surge and 4 to 8 inches of rainfall to the region.
In the northeast, Tropical Storm Omar weakened to a tropical depression as it continued its eastern track. As of the 11 p.m. update, forecasters said Omar was barely a tropical cyclone, and they predicted it would dissolve into a remnant low Thursday.
There are also two waves to watch in the Atlantic, as of the 8 p.m. update: one midway between Africa and the Caribbean, and one just off the African coast. The hurricane center said it expects the two to merge in the next day or so.
“Gradual development of this system is then possible, and a tropical depression could form over the weekend or early next week while it moves westward over the eastern and central tropical Atlantic Ocean,” forecasters said.
The hurricane center gave the combined system a low chance of forming in the next couple of days at 20% but upped its chance of forming this week to 60%.
The next storm name is Paulette.
