ISHIGAKI, OKINAWA PREF. – A large and powerful typhoon approached a remote chain of islands in Japan’s southwest on Friday, prompting authorities to warn of violent winds, torrential rain, landslides and flooding in what could be the region’s most destructive storm in years.
Typhoon Bavi is expected to pass very close to Sakishima Islands, a remote island chain near Taiwan that is part of Okinawa Prefecture, early on Saturday morning, according to meteorological authorities. Maximum sustained winds were topping out at 162 kilometers per hour, and local residents on Ishigaki, one of the islands in the chain, were taping up windows and draping windproof nets across homes and shops.
On the Philippines’ southern island of Mindanao, two landslides triggered by heavy rain driven by Bavi killed at least 15 people and left six others missing, authorities said.
