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Seoul: South Korea ducked as Typhoon Haishen washed ashore on its southern peninsula on Monday (Sept. 7), after the powerful storm hit the southern islands of Japan, but appeared to pass without major damage or casualties.
The storm, with maximum sustained winds of up to 126 kilometers per hour, was heading north from the southern city of Ulsan, after landing on a nearby coast Monday morning, the South Korean weather agency said.
Strong winds have already cut off power to nearly 5,000 homes on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, including the resort island of Jeju, which has seen more than 473mm of rain since Saturday.
Authorities have evacuated nearly 1,000 people, while more than 300 flights at 10 airports, including Jeju International Airport, have been canceled.
Entrances to national parks and some national train services were suspended, the country’s security ministry added.
In Japan, about 440,000 homes in the southwestern region of Kyushu were without power Monday morning after the storm passed, public broadcaster NHK reported.
READ: Typhoon Haishen hits southern Japan with strong winds and power outages
It added that 32 people were injured, including a woman who fell down a flight of stairs in the dark and four people who suffered cuts after the glass windows of an evacuation center were blown up.
Nearly 2 million people were ordered to evacuate the region, which was still recovering from heavy rains and floods in July that left 83 dead.
Typhoon Haishen comes just days after Typhoon Maysak slammed into the Korean peninsula, leaving at least two dead and thousands without power.
North Korea, which suffered the brunt of Maysak and Typhoon Bavi a week earlier, is also in the path of Haishen and the storm is expected to approach the port city of Chongjin late Monday.
Live footage on state television, a rarity that has been broadcast for three weeks, showed trees shaking and waves rising in Tongchon county in Gangwon province, bordering South Korea. The state broadcaster reported that all Tongchon residents had been evacuated.
North Korea’s agricultural sector is particularly vulnerable to inclement weather, and this summer’s storms and floods have raised concerns about the country’s precarious food situation.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured coastal areas affected by Maysak on Saturday, ordering party members to join the recovery effort.
