Typhoon Haishen made landfall on the South Korean coast Monday, a day after battering southern Japan.
Forecasters at the Korea Meteorological Administration say Haishen reached the southern city of Ulsan with maximum sustained winds of 126 kilometers an hour. The storm has already affected the nearby port city of Busan, cutting off power to thousands of homes, forcing authorities to evacuate nearly 1,000 residents and grounding as many as 300 passenger flights to and from the region.
The weather agency says Haishen is expected to weaken to a tropical storm within the next 24 hours.
Haishen, which means “sea god” in Chinese, left nearly 500,000 households without power on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu Sunday. Nearly 2 million people were ordered to evacuate several southern Japanese islands as the typhoon bashed the region. At least 32 people were injured on Kyushu.
Haishen is the second typhoon to hit southern Japan and the Korean Peninsula in less than a week. Typhoon Maysak flooded homes and vehicles and knocked down trees and traffic lights after making landfall in Busan last Thursday, leaving at least two people dead.
Maysak was also blamed for the sinking of a cattle ship, which capsized and sank in the East China sea Wednesday. At least two of the 43 crewmen on board were rescued. The ship was also carrying nearly 6,000 cattle, bound for China.
