Japan’s Kansai International Airport will partially reopen Friday, days after sustaining serious damage from Typhoon Jebi.
Japanese authorities now say 11 people are dead and about 470 injured, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday.
The facility, in the western Osaka region, is one of Japan’s busiest airports, serving millions of tourists and as a major hub for air delivery carriers that transport computer chips, electronics and other goods around the world.
Kansai was shut down earlier this week when the heavy rains and winds generated by Jebi flooded one of its runways and a terminal building. The storm also stranded about 3,000 airline passengers overnight Tuesday when a tanker unmoored by the storm’s pounding waves and wind slammed into a bridge that is the airport’s only link to the mainland.
Typhoon Jebi made landfall Tuesday on the western island of Shikoku, carrying sustained winds of up to 160 kilometers per hour (99 mph) and strong gusts of up to 215 kilometers per hour (134 mph), making it the strongest typhoon to hit Japan since 1993.
At least 400,000 households are still without power across the region, according to Kansai Electric Power Company.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe canceled a scheduled trip to Kyushu to oversee the government’s response to the typhoon.
