Typhoon Noru
© EPATwo people are already confirmed dead and a further nine are missing after the typhoon smashed Kyushu and surrounding areas
Mainland Japan is bracing itself for Super Typhoon Noru which is fast approaching after already devastating the country's southern islands.

Two people are already confirmed dead and a further nine are missing after the typhoon smashed Kyushu and surrounding areas.

Typhoon Noru registered as the world's strongest storm at one point last week, is threatening up to 800mm of rainfall in the next 48 hours.

It has been a typhoon for 13 days, the longest hurricane-strength typhoon since Hurricane Ioke, the strongest storm ever recorded in the Central-Pacific.

The Amami island chain, located just south of the southwest main island of Kyushu and some 1,350 km (840 miles) from Tokyo, will be hit by high winds and heavy rains from Friday.

The monster storm is easily visible from the International Space Station, with stunning images showing Noru from 250km in the sky.

Noru, which is a Korean word for a type of deer, is then likely to turn north and drench Kyushu, although the northern parts of the island, which last month were hit with torrential rains and flooding that killed 36 and left four missing, are likely to be spared the worst, an agency spokesman said.

'This is an extremely slow-moving storm,' he added, noting this means there is a higher danger of floods due to extended heavy rains in one area.

Noru, at one point a Category 5 typhoon and an unusually long-lived storm, first formed two weeks ago and wandered in a circle around the northern Pacific before heading northwest and aiming for Japan, weakening as it approached.

Depending on how its course changes, Noru could also rake straight across Kyushu and then along Japan's main island of Honshu, but longer-term movements are still hard to pin down, the spokesman added.

Source: Reuters