Ishigaki Streets Littered, Traffic Lights Dark After Typhoon Champi

Toppled plant pots, torn palm fronds and broken branches littered the streets of Ishigaki as Typhoon Champi lashed the island in Japan’s far south on Friday, October 23, knocking out power to thousands of homes.

X user Yaima Murikabushi B’z filmed the scenes while driving through the city, writing, “All kinds of things are flying out onto the roads!” The four clips show a large overturned plant pot lying in a street, a metal object tumbling across a wet road, branches and palm leaves strewn across the lanes as palms whip in the gale, and dark traffic lights at an empty intersection. “Signals are out here too because of the power cut,” the driver says.

In the caption, the driver warned others to be careful if they must go out, saying gusts were stronger than expected and could pull at the steering wheel, and that many traffic lights had gone dark due to power outages.

Ishigaki recorded a peak gust of 46.1 meters per second (about 103 mph) at 3:10 p.m. The city said 12,310 households were without power as of 8:26 p.m. All flights to and from the Sakishima Islands were canceled, and schools, government offices and many shops closed.