Typhoon Lionrock Hits Japan’s Tohoku, Site of 2011 Tsunami
- Lionrock becomes first typhoon to make landfall in region
- Toyota halts production, thousands ordered to evacuate
High waves crash a seawall in Miyagi prefecture as Typhoon Lionrock approaches Tohoku region on August 30.
Photographer: The Asahi Shimbun via Getty ImagThis article is for subscribers only.
Typhoon Lionrock made landfall in Japan’s Tohoku, the area devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, becoming the first typhoon to come onshore in the region since records began in 1951.
The storm came onshore at about 6 p.m. near Ofunato in Iwate prefecture, a city where 340 people were killed and almost 3,000 homes destroyed in the 2011 disasters. The cyclone took a boomerang-like route away from Japan before U-turning back over the past week and is expected to move faster over the northern part of the Japanese archipelago and into the Sea of Japan by tomorrow, where it will weaken into an extratropical cyclone.