Japan issues highest alert over super typhoon Neoguri

Japan's weather agency on Monday extended its highest alert to Okinawa's populous main island as super typhoon Neoguri approached the southern chain, saying it may be one of the worst storms for decades.
      
The top-level warning means the typhoon poses a threat to life and could inflict massive damage from gusts of up to 270 kilometres (160 miles) per hour and torrential rain.
      
There are about 1.2 million residents on the main island. An earlier alert only covered the Miyako Island region with a population of 53,000.
      
The biggest US Air Force base in the Pacific, located on the main island, evacuated some of its aircraft as officers stressed that Neoguri may be deadly.
      
Waves could reach as high as 14 metres (45 feet), an official of the Japan Meteorological Agency said in a warning that was likely to revive memories of Japan's quake-tsunami disaster in 2011.
      
The typhoon was some 500 kilometres (310 miles) south of the main Okinawan island at 1200 GMT and was moving north northwest at 25 kilometres (16 miles) per hour.        

Miyako Island, in the central area of the archipelago, was in the expected path of the massive storm.
      
"Record-level violent winds and high waves are posing a serious danger to the Miyako Island region," Satoshi Ebihara, the agency's chief weather forecaster, told an evening news conference.
      
"People are advised to refrain from going outdoors... evacuate if necessary before violent winds occur and take appropriate action to protect themselves," he said.
      
The massive gusts and torrential rain will possibly reach mainland Japan by Wednesday, an weather agency official said...