Typhoon Neoguri lashed Japan's southern Okinawa islands yesterday, reportedly leaving two dead and forcing more than half a million to seek shelter as the region's worst storm in years damaged buildings, downed trees and brought air and sea traffic to a halt.
The typhoon packed gusts of up to 216 kilometres per hour with torrential downpours, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
In the capital Naha, traffic lights went off and television footage showed trees split by the force of the storm, signboards flying around and a restaurant destroyed, with the shattered building blocking a street.
The coastguard and local police said a 62-year-old man was found dead after he was knocked off his boat in rough waters near Japan's mainland, while public broadcaster NHK said an 81-year-old fisherman died in southwestern Kumamoto prefecture.
Separately, Okinawa police said at least four people were injured, with NHK putting the number of injured at 25.
Schools across the sprawling archipelago were also closed while nearly 70,000 Okinawan households had no power, NHK said.
Late Monday, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued its highest typhoon alert for Okinawa's main island, home to around 1.2 million people, as well as the outlying Miyako islands. The alerts for the Miyako region were downgraded Tuesday evening.
Authorities had warned there was a risk to life, as well as major property damage from the typhoon and subsequent flooding and landslides.
Officials called on 590,000 people across Okinawa to take shelter in their homes or evacuate to safe places.
Neoguri comes less than a year after Typhoon Haiyan, packing the strongest winds ever recorded on land, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing as it tore across the central Philippines in November.
The World Meteorological Organization said Neoguri was not as powerful as Haiyan, but that "its impact is not to be underestimated".
