Year’s Strongest Storm Bearing Down On Japan

The year’s most powerful storm is focusing on Okinawa.

Japan, which has been recovering from a strike from Typhoon Phanfone last week that dumped heavy rain and battered the country with high winds, is directly in the path of Typhoon Vongfong.

Vongfong is classified as a “Super Typhoon” and is over open water.  The Hawaii-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center says the storm has sustained winds of 179 miles per hour and gusts over 219 miles per hour.  Forecasts say the sustained winds will strengthen to 190 miles per hour at the storm’s peak.

Vongfong is the sixth “Super Typhoon” in the Pacific this year.  While the storm season has seen half the usual amount of storms, the number of Super Typhoons is double the season average.

Japanese officials are concerned about the storm striking so soon after Phanfone, which disrupted air and sea travel, led to the disappearance of two American soldiers and forced suspension of searches for bodies on Mount Ontake.