Written by whisperDispatch.com | 14 July 2007

by Kelly Riddell and Alex Morales

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Typhoon Man-Yi made landfall on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands, bringing torrential rain and sustained winds of more than 105 kilometers (65 miles) an hour.

Man-Yi was offshore between Kyushu and Shikoku islands, about 703 kilometers west-southwest of Tokyo, traveling northeast at 19 knots, at midnight Japan time this morning, according to an advisory posted on the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Storm waves reached 7 meters (24 feet) in height, the Web site said.

The typhoon, which earlier had winds gusting to almost 300 kph, landed on the Osumi peninsula in Kyushu's Kagoshima prefecture at about 2 p.m. local time yesterday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

An evacuation of about 8,000 Kyushu residents began as the storm bore down on the region, threatening to cause flooding and landslides, the agency said. Heavy rain engulfed Kyushu yesterday morning, pouring down at a rate of more than 5 centimeters (2 inches) an hour, it said.

More than 50 centimeters of rain are forecast to fall on Kyushu by noon today. Japanese broadcaster NHK reported flooding in Miyazaki prefecture on Kyushu and showed images of cars blown over and downed power lines.

No Flights, No Power

Airlines canceled more than 300 flights to and from Okinawa and Kyushu airports yesterday. All Nippon Airways Co. and Japan Airlines Corp., the nation's largest domestic carriers, canceled about 200 flights. Japan Transocean Air and Ryukyu Air Commuter Co., subsidiaries of Japan Air, said they grounded 117. About 46,000 travelers were affected.

About 100,000 households on Okinawa earlier were left without power in Man-Yi's wake, Kyodo News agency reported, citing local officials.

At least 44 people were injured in five prefectures, including Okinawa, and 210 houses were damaged including homes flooded as of yesterday, NHK reported. Okinawa is about 3,200 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. The Japan Meteorological Agency has warned of possible landslides and flooding in the area.

Japan is regularly buffeted by tropical cyclones during the Northern Hemisphere's summer. Nine people died in Kyushu last September when Typhoon Shanshan came ashore, packing winds of 89 mph. A record 10 tropical storms and typhoons hit in 2004, killing more than 60 people and causing billions of dollars of damage.

Man-Yi is the name of an old strait in Hong Kong that was dammed and turned into a reservoir, according to the Web site of the Hong Kong Observatory, which lists cyclone names in use in the Pacific.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kelly Riddell in Washington at kriddell1@bloomberg.net ; Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: July 14, 2007 15:42 EDT