Typhoon Champi Whips Trees on Remote Okinawa Islands

Howling winds whipped a line of trees into a frenzy and mist swallowed the horizon as Typhoon Champi bore down on the Yaeyama Islands in Japan’s far south on Friday, October 23.

X user AYA filmed the storm from an emergency exit, writing, “It’s getting stronger!” and describing themself as “someone checking the situation from the emergency exit every so often.” The short clip shows dense greenery thrashing behind a concrete wall as rain and spray blur the gray sky.

Less than half an hour after the video was posted, the town of Ohara on Iriomote Island recorded a peak gust of 51.7 meters per second (about 116 mph) at 2:41 p.m., the strongest October gust ever measured there. Ishigaki recorded a gust of 46.1 meters per second at 3:10 p.m.

Japan’s weather agency issued storm warnings for the Miyako and Yaeyama regions as the large and very strong typhoon, known in Japan as Typhoon No. 30, approached with maximum gusts of 60 meters per second near its center. By 5 p.m., 14,470 households in Ishigaki, Taketomi and nearby areas were without power, all flights to and from the Sakishima Islands were canceled, and schools were closed.