tpyhoon usagi - a wild rabbit leaves its wet footprints |
Rainclouds over Japan
© Photo: YAHOO 台風情報
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台風5号
My Japanese LINK with more photos !
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BBC UK NEWS
Last Updated: Friday, 3 August 2007
Typhoon Usagi hits southern Japan
Eighteen people were injured and thousands sought shelter as Typhoon Usagi struck Japan's southern island of Kyushu.
The typhoon made landfall late on Thursday, bringing winds of up to 180 km/h (110mph).
It cut power to thousands of homes and felled trees. Bullet trains from the main island, Honshu, were suspended.
Usagi is moving northwards, but it has weakened and meteorologists have now downgraded it to a tropical storm.
Television footage showed uprooted trees and flooded rivers. A number of flights were cancelled.
Among the injured was an 81-year-old woman in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima who was blown over and broke her thigh, a local official said.
A postman was injured after wind overturned his van, another official said. Two people were reportedly hurt in falls from roofs.
In the hardest-hit areas, families and the elderly took refuge in municipal shelters.
Usagi, which means rabbit in Japanese, is the second major storm to hit Japan this season.
In July, Typhoon Man-yi left three people dead when it struck Kyushu and neighbouring island Shikoku.
© news.bbc.co.uk
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TYPHOON, a kigo for haiku
Read my Haiku Archives 2007
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