Japan orders 2.2 million residents to evacuate as storm batters neighbor Taiwan

TAIPEI/TOKYO - Japan evacuated more than 2 million people and issued flood and landslide warnings as Typhoon Mekkhala approached on Friday, while torrential rain from the storm as it passed neighbouring Taiwan shut down parts of the island, leaving around 6 million people off work or school.

Mekkhala, currently a tropical storm, is nearing southern Japan's Ryukyu Islands after skirting Taiwan where it brought heavy rain to parts of the island, especially the southern regions of Kaohsiung, Tainan and Pingtung.

Heavy rain and strong winds also lashed areas of southern and western Japan, where authorities warned of landslides, flooding and swollen rivers, and ordered 2.2 million people to evacuate.

Japan has already cancelled more than 200 flights with dozens of train services suspended and many expressways closed, the land ministry said, as the country's meteorological agency warned a stationary seasonal rain front, being fed with warm, moist air, was causing intense rainfall, particularly in western regions.

Toyota 7203.T stopped operations at a factory in the southern region of Kyushu from Thursday afternoon into Friday's first shift, with a decision for the second shift due later.

The governments of all three Taiwanese regions, meanwhile, ordered offices and schools closed on Friday. Severe flooding in Tainan shut down a section of the island's main north-south railway line.

In the northern Taiwanese city of Hsinchu, home to the world's largest contract chipmaker, TSMC 2330.TW, offices and schools closed from noon (0400 GMT).

TSMC said in a statement that it had taken measures across its Taiwan facilities to prepare for the rain, and its factories were operating normally.

Some 6 million people live in the four affected areas of Taiwan. In parts of largely rural Pingtung, almost a metre (3.2 ft) of rain has fallen since Thursday.

BARRIER LAKE RISK

In Taiwan, no casualties have been reported but authorities in Hualien county were evacuating nearly 200 residents from two townships downstream of a rapidly filling barrier lake in the mountains.

Barrier lakes are formed when rocks, landslides or other natural blockages create a dam across a river, normally in a valley, blocking and holding back water, and hindering or even preventing natural drainage.

Last year, 19 people died in a different part of Hualien when another barrier lake breached its banks during Super Typhoon Ragasa, unleashing a wall of water and mud into homes.

Rain is forecast to continue over Taiwan for at least the next week, though it will gradually ease.

Precipitation is not all bad news for Taiwan, which relies on the traditional summer and autumn typhoon season to fill its reservoirs after what are typically dry winters.

-Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee in Taipei, Chang-Ran Kim and Kantaro Komiya in Tokyo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Christopher Cushing and Kate Mayberry/Reuters