Typhoon batters 2 Koreas after drenching Japan
SEOUL, South Korea >> A powerful typhoon lashed North and South Korea with strong wind and heavy rain, killing two people in landslides, leaving hundreds of others homeless and triggering blackouts in the South, officials said Tuesday.
In North Korea, rain drenched parts of the country, including the eastern coastal city of Wonsan, but did not reach the capital, Pyongyang, which was windy Monday but spared the heavy rains that lashed the South Korean capital.
Typhoon Sanba, which battered southern South Korea around midday Monday, pushed northward and moved into eastern waters, where it weakened and lost energy on Tuesday morning. North Korean didn’t get a direct hit but was affected by the storm’s outer bands, South Korean weather officials said.
More than 3,700 homes and shops in South Korea remained without power Tuesday but officials were expected to restore power later in the day, the state-run National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.
A woman died in a landslide in southeastern South Korea, and a man died in a separate landslide, agency officials said. Two people were injured and about 560 people were left homeless, they said.
Before reaching South Korea, the storm hit Japan. One man drowned in high waves, about 67,000 homes in southwestern Japan lost power and some areas flooded.
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There were no immediate official reports from North Korea on whether the storm caused any damage there. Dozens there were killed in a typhoon last month, and the country suffered flooding and drought earlier in the year.
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Associated Press writer Jean H. Lee contributed to this report from Pyongyang, North Korea.