A huge typhoon packing fierce winds is moving north toward the Japanese island of Okinawa and is projected to eventually hit the Korean Peninsula, where dozens of people were killed by a big storm last month.
The tropical cyclone headed for Okinawa is named Sanba and is currently classed as a super typhoon, with maximum sustained winds near its center of 210 kilometers per hour (130 mph), according to the Hong Kong Observatory, which monitors typhoons in the region.
Sanba is expected to approach Okinawa early Sunday local time before plowing on toward South Korea, according to projections from regional weather agencies. It is forecast to gradually weaken as it moves north.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency on Friday classified Sanba’s scale as “large” and intensity as “violent.”
Last month, Typhoon Bolaven, another large storm, killed more than 60 people on the Korean Peninsula. Bolaven had also swept over Okinawa, which escaped relatively unscathed.The infrastructure on Okinawa is designed to withstand powerful storms, since the island is in an area of the western Pacific Ocean where typhoons are frequent.
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