Typhoon Nanmadol veers off course for Korea

The southern coast of Jeju Island brims with high waves, Sunday, as Typhoon Nanmadol approaches the country from the south. Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

Just two weeks after Korea reeled under Typhoon Hinnamnor, a super typhoon that hit the southern parts of the country, another large-scale typhoon was headed northbound.

The typhoon was expected to impact Jeju Island and the southern regions of Korea but it veered off eastbound earlier than previously forecast, moving farther away from Jeju, according to the KMA on Sunday evening. But the typhoon was still expected to maintain its intensity until late Sunday, generating heavy rain and strong winds.

Typhoon Nanmadol arrived some 10 kilometers southeast of the Japanese prefecture of Kagoshima as of 7 p.m. on Sunday, with wind speeds peaking at 49 meters per second. The typhoon's eye was about 430 kilometers south of Jeju Island's southern Seogwipo City and Busan.

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) forecast the typhoon's eye to reach some 520 kilometers southwest of Osaka and turn eastward Monday morning around 6 a.m., putting most of Japan directly under its influence.

Korea's central disaster safety control authority increased the level of warning against Nanmadol from Level 1 to Level 2 at noon on Sunday. The authority expanded the caution as the typhoon's impact on the country was forecast to grow to its maximum around midnight.

The typhoon's intensity was expected to continue as "very strong" with wind speeds between 44 m/s and 53 m/s. But by Monday morning, the intensity is expected to be reduced to "strong" with wind speeds between 33 m/s and 43 m/s.

Jeju weather officials had issued warnings against strong winds and high waves in the southern ocean on Sunday. But as the typhoon shifted east earlier than expected into Sunday, the authority called off the warnings past noon the same day. But the entire Jeju region was still expected to experience strong winds until Monday morning.

Fishing vessels are docked at Seogwipo Port on Jeju Island, Sunday, to take shelter from Typhoon Nanmadol. Yonhap

The typhoon shut down eight of nine maritime travel routes connecting Jeju to other nearby islands and put 11 out of 12 ships out of service. Some 1,000 fishing vessels at the island's ports have been docked and one of seven trekking routes on Mount Halla has been banned from entry.

After forming in the ocean off the Philippines on Sept. 13, Nanmadol developed into a typhoon the following day and started moving north with a "weak" intensity and wind speeds of between 17 m/s and 24 m/s. The intensity grew to very strong on Sunday morning.

President Yoon Suk-yeol told his officials to remain wary of Nanmadol as he stepped on the presidential jet Sunday morning to leave for the U.K., his first stop on a weeklong official trip.

Yoon instructed Interior Minister Lee Sang-min to prepare the country for the approaching typhoon, according to Lee Jae-myeong, the vice-spokesperson of the presidential office.

With much of the country's essential industrial infrastructure still recovering from the impact of Hinnamnor, including a POSCO steel plant in North Gyeongsang Province, the president ordered the interior minister to "thoroughly prepare for the typhoon at all costs as the country has been under threats from back-to-back natural disasters."

President Yoon Suk-yeol, center, shakes hands with Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min at Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, before boarding the presidential jet to leave for the U.K., Sunday. First lady Kim Keon-hee is on the right. Yonhap

"He was especially concerned about the potential loss of lives, encouraging people in regions vulnerable to the typhoon approaching from the south to find shelter and to seal off low-lying areas like streams, tunnels and underground parking lots before it's too late," Lee said.

Yoon will attend a funeral for Queen Elizabeth II of England in London on Monday, followed by visits to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, as well as Toronto and Ottawa in Canada. The president told Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Saturday evening to take all precautionary measures to protect the country from Nanmadol. All workers in the central and local governments were ordered by Yoon to work around the clock under emergency mode.

Japan is under imminent threat of the typhoon making landfall. Two million people there were told Saturday to seek shelter before the arrival of the typhoon as the country's weather agency issued a rare "special warning," according to the country's broadcaster NHK.

The country issued the second-highest level of evacuation instructions in place for people in Kagoshima, Kumamoto and Miyazaki in the country's southwestern Kyushu region. The move came as Japan's central meteorological agency issued the highest alert for Kagoshima. It is the first typhoon-linked special warning issued outside the Okinawa region since the current Japanese weather system was put in use in 2013, according to AFP.