Typhoon kills 9, shuts down airport in Japan

Typhoon Jebi has killed at least nine people and left more than a million homes without power in western Japan. Called Jebi, this typhoon was a brief yet super typhoon and was the strongest one to hit Japan in 25 years.

Jebi, which translates to "swallow" in Korean, led to heavy rains, landslides, floods in Japan. As per Japan's public broadcaster NHK, 3,000 stranded passengers were transferred by boats by an airport company on Wednesday.

Hundreds of people were killed in Japan due to record-breaking heat this year as well.

Typhoon Jebi hit the western coast of Japan on Tuesday and brought winds of 216 km/hr along with heavy rain. Due to powerful winds, a 2,591-ton tanker was swept away into a bridge leading to Kansai International Airport. The tanker was anchored in Osaka Bay.

After this, about 3,000 passengers were left stranded at the airport in Honshu.



High-speed boats were used to transfer the passengers to Kobe Airport.

Many areas inside the airport were flooded after the storm.

According to the trade ministry and public broadcaster NHK, over one million households were without power in Osaka and its surrounding areas at 7:30 am on Wednesday (22:30 GMT Tuesday) and a number of flights and some trains were cancelled.

Earlier, 800 flights were cancelled ahead of the typhoon along with ferries, local train services, and some bullet train lines. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had urged people to evacuate early and ordered his government to take all necessary measures to protect residents.

Japan's JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corp shut at least one of the refining units at its 135,000 barrels-per-day Sakai refinery in Osaka in western Japan due to typhoon damage to a part of the cooling tower, the trade ministry said.