Typhoon Kong-rey, Hurricane Walaka: Japan, South Korea, Walaka Circuit, Models, Latest Category 2 Hurricane Forecast Today

A violent typhoon was heading towards the Okinawa Islands in southern Japan, while a powerful hurricane had resulted in evacuations from an isolated atoll northwest of the Hawaiian Islands. The typhoon Kong-rey was on a track that could carry it to South Korea.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency announced Thursday that Kong-rey has sustained maximum winds of 78 mph with gusts of up to 112 mph. It was heading north at about 12 mph.

Parts of Okinawa and other small islands in southern Japan were already seeing rain, wind and strong waves. Many flights have been canceled at the main Okinawa airport in the city of Naha.

The typhoon was to spend the night west of the main island of Okinawa and continue north on Friday towards the Korean peninsula. It could bring heavy rains by crossing the Kyushu coast, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands.

Meanwhile, in the Hawaiian Islands, seven researchers were evacuated from the shoals of the French frigate while Hurricane Walaka was heading towards them, officials said Wednesday. Kate Toniolo, Acting Superintendent of Naval Monument Papahanaumokuakea, has indicated a search boat.

The atoll is about 500 miles northwest of Honolulu. Early Thursday, Walaka had sustained maximum winds of 110 mph, making it a Category 2 storm.

On Monday, the Coast Guard evacuated four workers from a national wildlife refuge on Johnston Atoll before Walaka passed the island. The storm has not threatened the most populous islands of Hawaii, where 1.4 million people live.

French scientists Frigate Shoals are studying and monitoring Hawaiian monk seals and Hawaiian green sea turtles, said Toniolo. They have to leave the island in the middle of this month, so the evacuation has accelerated their departure, she said.

Alyssa Dillon, coordinator of the scientific content of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the research vessel had recovered the team Sunday after being diverted from a project near Kauai. The boat returned to Honolulu on Tuesday.

The French frigate Shoals is the nesting site of 95% of Hawaiian sea turtles – classified as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Turtles dig holes on the beach and lay their eggs in the sand. It is therefore possible that a storm caused by the hurricane could annihilate their nests.

Storm surges can also affect Hawaiian monk seals that rest on the shore with their puppies. Seals are an endangered species.

Toniolo said the researchers would not return to the island until next year. But a crew picking up marine debris from the marine monument will probably stop and check the damage before that date.

Laura Beauregard of the US Fish and Wildlife Service said the hurricane raised similar concerns for Johnston Atoll, located about 825 miles southwest of Honolulu. Johnston is the only nesting place for tens of thousands of seabirds in a 450,000 square kilometer radius, she said.

Some birds have the ability to detect changes in atmospheric pressure at the onset of a storm and can leave, but they can also be deflected, Beauregard said. "But most of them are very stubborn parents and they will stay to protect their chicks," she said.

Falling trees and throwing debris could kill birds. Birds nesting in burrows may drown.

Scientists will not be able to monitor seabirds and the island until another crews head to the atoll in December, she said. The US Fish and Wildlife Service sends small crews on the island in a six-month rotation.

The evacuation has shortened the current rotation by a few months. Officials initially thought the workers, including one employee and three volunteers, could cope with the storm.

The atoll has a four-storey concrete structure dating from the time when the Navy used it and where workers could take refuge there. But the building was only designed to withstand a category 4 hurricane and for a time, Walaka was a Category 5 storm.

"At that time, we knew that it would be prudent to evacuate the island crew," Beauregard said.