Nearly a million people in Japan were ordered to evacuate, and Toyota shuttered all its factories today as the country braced for Typhoon Shanshan to approach the mainland, with authorities warning that it could produce a large-scale disaster.

Japanese officials issued rare emergency warnings for the powerful storm as it churned toward the country’s southwest, bringing torrential rain and hurricane-force winds.

The warnings were issued for storms and high waves in Kagoshima prefecture. They are the highest category of warnings possible in Japan and are usually only issued once every few decades, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. With a risk of tornadoes in the prefecture Thursday morning, the agency cautioned people to pay attention to the sky and move into sturdy buildings.

The storm was moving north Thursday morning near southern Kyushu, one of Japan’s main islands, according to the meteorological agency.

It may make landfall in Kyushu by Friday, the agency said. But Shanshan’s slow pace means it will lash some areas with relentless rain for hours, elevating threats of flooding. In southern Kyushu, there was a risk of record-breaking strong winds, high waves, high tides and heavy rain, the agency warned.

Authorities warned that wind speeds could strengthen and topple some homes, and that the rain could cause flash flooding and landslides. Authorities issued evacuation orders for about 990,000 people across southern, western and central Japan on Tuesday and today.

Parts of the country far from the typhoon, mainly in western Japan and the Pacific Ocean side of eastern Japan, were experiencing heavy rain and thunder early Thursday morning because of the storm, forecasters said.

Toyota announced that it would pause production at all 14 of its Japan factories overnight, starting today, to protect the safety of its workers. Shiro Tachimoto, a company representative, said the company would reassess Thursday morning whether to keep the factories closed or reopen them.

In Aichi prefecture in central Japan, a man and a woman died after a landslide hit their family’s house, the public broadcaster NHK reported Thursday.

Eight cities and towns, mostly on the Amami Islands, had ordered residents to evacuate, NHK reported. More than 115,000 customers were without power in Kyushu on Thursday morning, the Kyushu Electric Power Transmission and Distribution company said. The utility said it had set up a disaster team to respond to the outages.

Japan Airlines said it had canceled some flights today that had been scheduled to arrive or depart from some airports in central Japan, including Osaka Kansai Airport, one of the country’s largest. All Nippon Airways, the country’s largest airline, said it had canceled some Friday flights at Osaka airport.

Japan’s high-speed rail network, the Shinkansen, suspended some trains today, and its operators warned that services could be disrupted into the weekend. Toll and expressway operators lifted some earlier closures but warned residents to check traffic information this week before traveling. Postal services were also disrupted at some counters today, according to Japan Post, and cellphone services were down in parts of the Kagoshima prefecture, according to one provider.

The powerful storm had sustained winds of up to 109 mph Thursday, equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane, according to the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center. In some cities in central and eastern Japan, up to 10 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period from Tuesday into today. Some cities in Japan saw winds of up to 86 mph, equivalent to those of a Category 1 hurricane.

The typhoon slowed overnight as it approached the Amami Islands. At some point, after moving northwest along the coast during the day Thursday, the storm will likely turn back east. However, precisely when or where that will occur remains unclear.

Heavy rain is expected to continue after Friday, the Japan Meteorological Agency, said, when the region could see a record-breaking 39 inches of rain, mainly in southern Kyushu.

Japan last issued emergency warnings for Typhoon Nanmadol, a 2022 storm that brought torrential rain and landslides to Kyushu. More than 8 million people were ordered to evacuate.

The start of the Pacific typhoon season this year has seen a lower number of tropical storms than average, in part because of the La Niña weather pattern that is predicted to arrive later this summer, according to the U.S. National Weather Service.

La Niña, which is defined by cooler equatorial sea surface temperatures, typically increases wind shear — changes in wind speed and direction — in the central Pacific region, which makes it harder for storms to develop, the weather service said in May.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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