Japanese workers cut up part of a tree that fell into a parking lot at Yokota Air Base, Japan, as Typhoon Maria skirted the Kanto Plain on Wednesday. (Vince Little / S&S)
Japanese workers cut up part of a tree that fell into a parking lot at Yokota Air Base, Japan, as Typhoon Maria skirted the Kanto Plain on Wednesday. (Vince Little / S&S)
Hundreds of passengers mob the Japan Air Lines ticket counter Wednesday at the Naha International Airport's domestic terminal. Six international and 178 domestic flights were canceled due to Typhoon Saomai, stranding more than 28,000 passengers. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
NAHA, Okinawa — Typhoon Saomai strengthened into a super typhoon late Wednesday but stayed far enough southwest to keep U.S. bases on Okinawa well out of harm’s way. The same went for Tropical Storm Maria in the Tokyo-Kanto Plain area.
Saomai sidestepped Okinawa to the southwest but in passing, swiped the island with rain showers and wind gusts of more than 45 mph, stranding thousands of Obon holiday travelers.
Maria curved sharply northeast, skittering just southeast of Yokosuka Naval Base, bringing the Tokyo area heavy rain but tolerable breezes.
Kadena Air Base weather officials said two factors kept Saomai from packing more of a punch toward Okinawa: A high pressure ridge influenced the storm further south and, though powerful, Saomai wasn’t a large storm — only about 315 miles across.
“We got lucky. We could have been pummeled if it had gone right over us,” said Master Sgt. Brian McDonald, noncommissioned officer in charge of Kadena’s 18th Wing Weather Flight.
Saomai’s closest approach to the island was 129 miles southwest of Kadena at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. At midnight, Saomai rumbled 161 miles west-southwest of Okinawa, moving west-northwest at 21 mph, packing sustained winds of 161 mph and gusts of up to 196 mph at its center — equal to a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.
The strongest wind gust on Okinawa was 47 mph at 11 a.m. But Saomai did pour almost an inch of rain on Kadena. “We pretty much got the feeder bands,” McDonald said. “The bulk of the precipitation went south of us.”
The highest-declared Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness was 1C (caution) at 9 a.m. Wednesday. TCCOR 1R (recovery) was issued at 4 p.m. and the island reverted to seasonal TCCOR 4 at 8 p.m.
No typhoon-related damage, injuries or flooding on the island or U.S. bases were reported immediately by U.S. military and Okinawa prefectural authorities.
But for tourists at the height of Japan’s Obon holidays, the timing could not have been worse.
Japan Air Lines canceled 39 flights bound to or from Okinawa from Japan’s main islands. Its partners, Japan Transocean Air and Ryukyu Air Commuter, scratched 70 flights; All Nippon Airways kept 69 flights grounded. Internationally, China Air canceled four flights and Asiana Airlines two. In all, 28,000 travelers were stranded at Naha Airport.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast Saomai to track west over Miyako and Ishigaki islands between Okinawa and Taiwan, finally making landfall at 3 p.m. Thursday on China’s east coast.
It would make the second time this week violent weather has punched Miyako: Tropical Storm Bopha hit the popular tourist destination on Monday.
Saomai, however, “is going to hurt” Miyako, McDonald said. “I wouldn’t want to be there now.”
Maria had been forecast to come ashore near Osaka but turned sharply northeast overnight Tuesday, rapidly disintegrating into a tropical depression. Its sustained 40 mph winds came as close as 50 miles from Yokosuka Naval Base.
Yokota Air Base got 1½ inches of rain; the strongest gust reported was 21 mph at 12:30 p.m.
Stars and Stripes correspondents Allison Batdorff, Vince Little and Hana Kusumoto in Japan and David Allen and Chiyomi Sumida on Okinawa contributed to this report.
