Japan Can't Catch A Break: Typhoon Jebi Devastates

High winds during Typhoon Jebi this week blew these cars into Japan
into a pile, as if they were all snow blowing into a drift.
Photo: Jiji Press/AFPI/Getty Images

Japan has had a horrible summer.

First, one of the worst floods in that nation's history killed more than 200 people in late June and the first half of July.

Then a terrible heat wave broke all time record highs, and killed more people.

In the late summer, typhoons have been harassing Japan, and finally, this week, the worst typhoon in 25 years slammed the country, causing widespread destruction, especially in and near the Osaka metropolitan area.

The storm killed about a dozen people and caused widespread destruction. Thousands of people were stranded at Kansai International Airport when a storm surge flooded most of the airport and a ship crashed into a bridge connecting the airport to the mainland.

As you can see in the photo in this post, cars were blown into a pile as if they were a snowdrift formed in a gusty Vermont snowstorm.

It keeps getting worse. Japan was also struck by an earthquake that set off numerous landslides in the northern island of Sapporo. Several people are reported dead or missing.

Quite a few videos are coming out of smart-phone crazy Japan.

Here's roofs peeling away and trucks overturning:



Flying roofs do seem to be a theme of this typhoon. Here's another compilation, including the roof coming off a high rise:



This one looks particularly scary, including glass and ceilings falling into an atrium still occupied by people, and what appears to be a large air conditioning unit flying off a building and onto a (hopefully) unoccupied car:



This video seems particularly apocalyptic: Siding and scaffolding blowing off high rises and blowing through parking lots, piles of windblown cars burning, unmoored boats and wind blowing over cars and trucks and tearing apart a truck on a bridge. What were they doing out driving in that weather?



This brief video shows what a mess they'll have to pick up in the wake of the typhoon