Typhoon 18W (Roke), # 32, FINAL: All Clear
Published: September 20, 2011
10:45 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, Japan time: Naval Air Facility Atsugi and Yokosuka Naval Base have downgraded to Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness All Clear; other bases should follow soon, if they’ve not already. They still caution folks to be careful moving around base; fallen trees and tree limbs, power lines, etc. Just drove from Yokota, where Allied Telesis is without power and will be down until 2 a.m., to downtown Tokyo, and the base looks like a typhoon hit it. Branches, limbs, whole trees knocked over, leaves everywhere. I’m told by a civilian facilities assessment manager at Atsugi that it’s worse there. Definitely one of the worst tropical storms I can ever remember up this way. PST signing off for now. Two-hour delay for students to go to school and residents to go to work at Atsugi; two-hour delay for Yokota students, but normal duty hours prevail on Thursday at Yokota.
7:45 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, Japan time: Yokosuka Naval Base entered Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1-R (recovery) at 7:30 p.m. DO NOT GO OUT! Wait until assessment crews can view the damage and cleanup.
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, Japan time: Naval Air Facility Atsugi has downgraded to Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness I Caution. Forecasts call for 40-mph winds until 9 p.m. and 58-mph winds until 8 p.m. with 5 to 7 inches of rain. Gates are open and movement on and off base is authorized. The southside flightline road is secured due to debris. Trees and nets blocking south Constellation road between skeet range and Tower Avenue intersection.
6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, Japan time: Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1-E (emergency) set for Naval Air Facility Atsugi at 4:56 p.m. local time. In case you’re caught outside with no place to go, Ranger Gym and Navy Lodge are set as shelter points if you need them. Sustained winds of 58 mph or greater are actually occurring at Atsugi. Up north, Misawa Air Base can anticipate sustained 35-mph winds and 46-mph gusts until 5 a.m. Thursday. Camp Zama remains in TCCOR 1-C (caution). All other Kanto bases remain in TCCOR-1. Roke made landfall at 2 p.m. over Hamamatsu in central Honshu, packing sustained 52-mph winds and 69-mph gusts, but is moving northeast at 27 mph and is rapidly weakening due to interaction with land and strong vertical wind shear (35-46 mph). Expect rain and wind the rest of the evening, giving way to better weather Thursday and Friday.
2:50 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, Japan time: Yokosuka Naval Base set Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1 at 2:15 p.m.
Atsugi is in TCCOR1-E and has set up Ranger Gym and Navy Lodge as shelter points.
Navy Federal Credit Union at Yokosuka closed at 2 p.m.
Yokota base hospital has canceled all remaining appointments the rest of Wednesday.
Tokaido Shinkansen halted all train service at 1:30 p.m., stranding hundreds of passengers.
Portions of Tohoku Expressway serving Tokyo and Misawa into and out of Sendai closed.
As of 2 p.m., 413 commercial flights canceled.
Mission-essential personnel only working at Zama and Yokota. Most businesses have remained open.
1:20 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, Japan time: As of 11 a.m., at airports in areas affected by Typhoon Roke, All Nippon Airways canceled 116 domestic flights affecting more than 9,000 passengers. Japan Air Lines and its affiliates canceled 206 flights, stranding 27,200 passengers. Both airline groups canceled a total of eight international flights, affecting 1,200 passengers. Will update later with more numbers.
1:10 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, Japan time: Thunderstorm and high-wind warnings in effect for Yokosuka Naval Base until 6 p.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday. Fleet Activities Yokosuka public affairs officials ask personnel to tune in to Channel 15 for weather information and the commander's access Channel 16, CFAY and Afloat Training Group Western Pacific Facebook pages for official information.
12:50 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, Japan time: Yokota Air Base's 374th Airlift Wing at noon issued a minimum-essential personnel only order, and has requested minimum outdoor movement during the storm, according to the base's acting public affairs chief Capt. Ray Geoffroy. Just to be on the safe side, he said. Geoffroy said Yokota folks can keep updated on the commander's access Channel 20 for official information, Channel 19 for weather information and via Yokota's and AFN Eagle 810's Facebook pages.
Noon Wednesday, Sept. 21, Japan time: Typhoon Roke has begun shearing apart as it interacts with land and speeds rapidly northeast, nearly 21 mph, into cooler areas; temperatures hovering around 70 at Yokota Air Base, far from high enough to sustain a tropical storm. The eye is no longer defined and infrared looping imagery shows decreasing intensity at storm’s center. All DODDS schools at Camp Zama, Naval Air Facility Atsugi and Yokota have been dismissed. All after-school activities, including three Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools volleyball and two tennis matches and practices for those without scheduled games have been postponed; no word on when they’ll be rescheduled. Yokota, Atsugi and Zama remain in Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1; Yokosuka Naval Base remains in TCCOR 3, with no plan at this stage to upgrade. Forecasts still call for peak winds between 45 and 50 mph with gusts as high as 65 mph at Yokosuka and 58 mph elsewhere, with 5 to 7 inches of rain in the Kanto Plain. At airports throughout central Honshu, hundreds of flights have been canceled, stranding thousands of passengers in the run-up to the Autumnal Equinox holiday weekend; if you’re traveling Thursday or Friday, expect long lines of folks trying to find non-existent seats on airliners. Incredible amounts of rain continue to fall in those areas, already saturdated by the heavy rains of late last month.
9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, Japan time: Yokota Air Base entered Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness 1 at 6 a.m.; Naval Air Facility Atsugi and Camp Zama entered TCCOR 1 at 4 a.m.; Yokosuka Naval Base remains in TCCOR 3. Schools on Atsugi and Zama will be closed at noon; Yokota schools will close between 10:35 and 10:55 a.m. Local forecasts calling for 40-mph winds between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. and 58-mph winds between 3 and 8 p.m., with 5 to 7 inches of rain. Typhoon Roke continues moving north-northeast at 18 mph. Landfall over central Honshu forecast for around 2 p.m. Three hours later, Roke is forecast to pass 38 miles northwest of Yokota, 44 miles northwest of Atsugi and Zama and 66 miles northwest of Yokosuka. Unbelievable amounts of rain continue to fall west of Tokyo; news reports say 1.3 million people have been evacuated along coastal areas in and around Nagoya.
