Powerful typhoon lashes Japan, thousands evacuate

TOKYO — A powerful typhoon was bearing down Japan, dumping torrential rains and flooding parts of the country’s popular tourist destination of Kyoto, where 260,000 people were ordered to evacuate to shelters.

Typhoon Man-yi, one of the most powerful storms to lash Japan this season, was packing wind speeds of 162 kilometers (100 miles) per hour Monday morning and headed toward Tokyo.

The storm dumped an “unprecedented amount of rainfall” in Kyoto and its neighboring towns it passed overnight, the Meteorologial Agency said.

Beyond those who sought shelter in Kyoto, hundreds of thousands of others were also ordered to evacuate in western Japan. About 80,000 houses were without electricity in western and central Japan.

NHK public television showed tourists in Kyoto being evacuated on boats towed by rescue workers.