South Korea on high alert as Typhoon Sanba nears

AFP: South Korea was Sunday bracing for the arrival of its third major typhoon in two months, with school classes cancelled, ferry routes closed and thousands of ships sheltering in port.

Typhoon Sanba -- packing gusts of up to 48 metres per second -- was moving northward at a speed of 16 miles per hour (26kmh) about 50 miles off the Japanese island of Okinawa Sunday morning, Seoul's weather service said.

The typhoon killed one person and injured four in southwestern Japan, according to the Kyodo news agency, which added that another person remains missing. It also caused blackouts to 100,000 households, Kyodo said.

Sanba is expected to pass South Korea's southern resort island of Jeju Monday morning before pounding the peninsula in the evening, arriving more than 50 miles southeast of the capital before churning northwards, Seoul's weather service said.

Authorities have issued severe wind and heavy rain alerts for most of the southern coastal regions, warning of rainfall of up to 300 millimetres (11.8 inches) per hour in some regions.

About 4,800 ships in the southwestern port city of Yeosu have been taken out of the typhoon's path, while officials in the city and nearby areas have been put on high alert. School authorities in Jeju have ordered all schools in the island closed on Monday....

Typhoon Sanba on September 15, 2012, via NASA