Sunday September 16, 2012

S. Korea on high alert as Typhoon Sanba nears

SEOUL: South Korea was Sunday bracing for the arrival of its third major typhoon in two months, with school classes cancelled, ferry routes closed, and thousands of ships taken into shelters.

Typhoon Sanba - packing gusts of up to 48 metres per second - was moving northward at a speed of 16 miles per hour (26kmh) about 50 miles off the Japanese island of Okinawa Sunday morning, Seoul's weather service said.

The typhoon caused blackouts to 38,600 households in Okinawa, where almost 250 people evacuated their homes, island officials said in a statement.

It is expected to pass South Korea's southern resort island of Jeju Monday morning before pounding the peninsula in the evening, arriving more than 50 miles southeast of the capital before churning northwards, Seoul's weather service said.

Authorities have issued severe wind and heavy rain alerts for most of southern coastal regions, warning of rainfall of up to 300 millimetres (11.8 inches) per hour in some regions.

About 4,800 ships in the southwestern port city of Yeosu have been taken out of the typhoon's path, while officials in the city and nearby areas have been put on high alert.

School authorities in Jeju have ordered all schools in the island closed on Monday.

The government may issue the same order on Tuesday for southern regions of the peninsula, Yonhap news agency said, adding dozens of ferry routes to the island and along the southwestern coast have been suspended.

Powerful typhoons Bolaven and Tembin, which struck the peninsula late August, left more than 20 people dead in the South, damaging farmlands and hundreds of houses and causing power cuts that affected millions of homes.

North Korea's state media said Bolaven - the strongest to hit the peninsula for almost a decade - killed 48 people and left 21,180 homeless. - AFP

News

Sunday September 16, 2012

S. Korea on high alert as Typhoon Sanba nears