Typhoon Haishen reached the coast of South Korea’s southern peninsula on Monday but appears to pass without significant damage or casualties. In recent days, the storm has caused a lot of damage and injuries in Japan.
The storm, with wind speeds of up to 78 mph, was heading north from the southern city of Ulsan after landing on the nearby coast Monday morning, South Korea’s weather agency said.
High winds have cut power at about 5,000 homes in the southernmost tip of the Korean peninsula, including the holiday island of Jeju, which has reported more than 473 millimetres of rain since Saturday.
Nearly a thousand people have been evacuated, while more than three hundred flights at ten airports have been cancelled. Access to national parks and some train stations have been suspended.
In Japan, about 440,000 homes in the southwestern region of Kyushu are still without electricity on Monday morning, public broadcaster NHK reports.
At least 32 Japanese were injured. Nearly two million people in this region had been ordered to evacuate, which was still recovering from heavy rains and floods in July that killed 83 people.
Typhoon Haishen comes just days after Typhoon Maysak hit the Korean peninsula. At least two people were killed, and thousands of people were left without power.
North Korea, which suffered from both Maysak and Typhoon Bavi a week earlier, is also in Haishen’s path. The storm is expected to arrive at the port city of Chongjin at the end of the day on Monday.