This is a developing story with new details continuing to come in.
On Tuesday, more than 180,000 residents of a western Japanese city were urged to seek shelter as tropical storm Lan came roaring in from the Pacific.
The storm brought strong winds and heavy rain, swelling rivers and triggering landslide warnings throughout the region.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a top-level evacuation warning for around 182,000 residents of Tottori City late in the afternoon due to “unprecedented” heavy rains from the storm.
With lives in danger, the Japan Meteorological Agency encouraged those in the area to find higher ground for safety.
‼️BREAKING‼️- Tottori city of Japan 🇯🇵 issued its top-level evacuation warning to around 237,000 residents, as the weather agency warned of “unprecedented” heavy rain in the region
Evacuation warnings have been issued to more than 237,000 people across 11 prefectures in Japan as… pic.twitter.com/ZoftPFVfM2
— {Matt} $XRPatriot (@matttttt187) August 15, 2023
Electricity was mostly restored by Tuesday evening but 9,200 households remained without power according to local utility reports.
Meanwhile, debris caused by Lan had stopped local commuter trains and bullet trains were suspended as planned along with hundreds of flights from both Japan Airlines and ANA.
Kyodo News reported that 650 people were forced to stay overnight at Kansai airport due to road blockages caused by the storm.
The weather system spent all day on Tuesday sweeping over the region before moving out into the Sea of Japan past Vladivostok and through Russian Far East regions.
Unfortunately this left many travelers stranded due to travel halts which included 240 services from Japan Airlines and 313 from rival ANA airlines – particularly those serving Osaka.
It is unclear when these routes will be back up and running but it’s likely that this disruption could last for some time yet due to continued weather conditions in the area.