Chataan typhoon is heading for Sakhalin and the Kurils

The Chataan typhoon now raging in Japan will bypass the Maritime Territory but will deliver its blows on the Russian Sakhalin and Kuril Islands in the Pacific Ocean, reported on Thursday the Maritime Territorial Hydrometeorological Centre.

At the present time the typhoon is nearing the northern-most Japanese island of Hokkaido. Due to the bad weather on the Kurils, the aviation communication has been paralysed. Hundreds of passengers at Kuril airports are waiting for the weather to change for the better.

The Chataan typhoon appeared in the tropical latitudes in the Pacific Ocean and moved to the north at a speed of 45 metres a second. In the epicentre of the typhoon the waves are about ten metres high.

On July 10th, the Chataan reached the southern parts of Japan and then its central islands.

All these days the inhabitants and the authorities of the Maritime Territory were following the typhoon with anxiety, because it is much stronger that the previous one - Rammasun - which slightly hit the south of the Russian Far East the last weekend.

But even this slight blow had quite appreciable results - a monthly norm of precipitation fell in those two days in the south of the Maritime Territory, the level of water in the rivers rose by a metre and a half, and in the low-lying lands the fields and motor roads were flooded.

Fearing violent consequences of the Rammasun typhoon, last weekend the Vladivostok authorities took a decision to annul festivities on the occasion of the 142nd anniversary of the city. Thus, the typhoon spoiled the mood of local citizens.