TOKYO (AP) — Typhoon Tembin, which drenched southern Taiwan last week before going out to sea, appeared to be looping back today for another run at the island.
The revisit comes after another storm about 750 miles to the northeast, Typhoon Bolaven, lashed the Japanese island of Okinawa on Sunday night. It injured five people and left 66,500 households without power as of this afternoon, but did less damage than feared before moving north into the East China Sea.
Bolaven could affect coastal areas of South Korea by Tuesday, weather officials said.
Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau predicts that Tembin will make landfall early Tuesday in the same part of southern Taiwan where it dumped more than 20 inches of rain three days ago.
Tembin, packing winds of 75 mph, would likely skirt the eastern Taiwanese coast before moving northward toward the Chinese mainland, the bureau said.
Disaster officials in Okinawa were relieved that Bolaven, which was billed to be the strongest storm to hit the southern Japanese islands in several years, ended up being weaker than expected.
Okinawa authorities reported no major damage today aside from the blackouts. Officials in the nearby Amami islands said they had reports that some houses were damaged, but information was still being collected.
Many schools and government offices were closed because of the blackouts.
Buses were not running today, but Naha Airport, serving Okinawa’s capital, began functioning again, with 89 domestic flights operating and about 30 canceled.
It wasn’t immediately clear if ferry service had restarted amid still rough seas.
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