TOKYO, July 07. /ITAR-TASS/. More than 55,000 residents of Miyakojima Island in Okinawa Prefecture have received recommendations to evacuate as fierce Typhoon Neoguri is approaching the area, local media outlets report on Monday.

The Meteorological Agency of Japan has issued ‘a special warning’ — the term first used by Japanese weathermen in August 2013 and used only in special cases. “Because of a tremendous force of wind and the height of waves, this typhoon poses a big and inevitable danger,” Japanese meteorologists noted earlier.

At present, Neoguri, which means “raccoon” in Korean, moves to Okinawa from southeast at a speed of 20 km/h. According to meteorologists, it will reach the southernmost Okinawa Prefecture by the morning of Tuesday.

Gusts of wind in the epicenter of the typhoon reach 70 meters per second, the power enough to easily overturn a moving car. It is expected that waves may be as high as 14 meters near the coast.

Typhoon Neoguri coming to southern Japanese prefecture Okinawa “is very and inevitably dangerous,” a representative of Japanese weather forecasting service told an urgent news conference on Monday.

“Due to extremely strong winds and high waves this typhoon is very and inevitably dangerous,” the Japanese weatherman said, noting that “We recommend people to refrain from going out in the street.” Domestic weather forecasting service also noted that regional residents would accept a recommendation for evacuation which local authorities could make, as “it is needed to do so before winds reach a quite serious level.”

All ferry traffic is halted in this area, fishing vessels are being brought on the shore or vessels are trying to take a shelter in safe bays. Different air companies are reporting about flights cancelled to remote islands and in the city of Naha, an administrative centre of Okinawa. A match of top Japanese baseball league at a central stadium in Naha was also cancelled over looming typhoon.

Japanese government has already formed a special emergency centre over approaching typhoon on Monday.

Heavy rain is triggering floods and landslides north of Okinawa on the island of Kyushu. Record precipitation of 370 millimeters was reported around the city of Amakusa over the past day.

Further massive natural disasters are not ruled out.