Typhoon Nabi shifts course, now heading to Okinawa

[preciousdove]

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?article=31340§ion=104
Storm projected to hit north of Kadena early Tuesday (in 48 hours US time)

By Dave Ornauer, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, September 3, 2005

“We’re going to get them out of Dodge,” 18th Wing spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Paoli said of the KC-135 Stratotankers and E-3 Airborne Warning and Control Systems aircraft at Kadena Air Base. The planes already were being evacuated Thursday, he said, to mainland Japan and Guam....

“Starting around noon on Saturday,” said 1st Lt. Jonathan Wilson, 18th Weather Flight lead meteorologist, “things will start to deteriorate rapidly.”

...Nabi is forecast to bend slightly to the northwest over the weekend with the eye clipping Okinawa’s northern edges at 5 a.m. Tuesday. Forecasts call for the storm’s center to pass 51 miles north of Kadena, with sustained winds of 155 mph gusting up to 190 mph, comparable to a Western Hemisphere Category 5 hurricane.

....If Nabi remains on its current track, it could become the worst storm to hit Okinawa since Super Typhoon Bart walloped the island on Sept. 22, 1999, with winds of 145 mph reported at Kadena and 173 mph at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma...

[damntexdem]

1. Oh, Okinawa -- I thought you said Oklahoma.

After Katrina I was ready to believe it.

Well, let's hope Okinawa doesn't catch it like NO did. Maybe they're better prepared. Oh, wait, same FEMA. Too bad.

[mom cat]

2. Sounds like they are evacuating the military...?civilians?

This looks like another monster storm!

[mom cat]

3. Check this link...It looks awful.

http://hurricane.accuweather.com/hurricane/regions.asp?a=a&site=wpac