Surging waves and strong winds hit Amami Oshima island, southern Japan. Typhoon Man-Yi pounded Japan's southern Okinawa island chain today, injuring residents, cutting power to tens of thousands of households and grounding hundreds of flights, officials said. AP Photo/Kyodo News   A vehicle is parked near the broken part of a seaside road which was partly washed away by high waves in Nago, Okinawa, southwestern Japan. AP Photo/Okinawa Times, Tomoteru Yara

Man-yi was classified a super typhoon earlier today, with winds gusting to as much as 184 mph, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center Web site reported. A super typhoon has sustained winds of more than 150 mph. At 11 a.m. New York time, the storm was moving at 13 mph toward Kyushu. Storm waves reached 42 feet (13 meters) in height, the Navy said.

Heavy rain engulfed Kyushu this morning local time, pouring down at a rate of more than 5 centimeters (2 inches) an hour, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. More than 50 centimeters of rain are forecast to fall on Kyushu by noon tomorrow.

An evacuation of about 8,000 Kyushu residents began as the storm bore down on the region, threatening to cause flooding and landslides, the meteorological agency said. Japanese broadcaster NHK reported flooding in Miyazaki prefecture on Kyushu and showed images of cars blown over and downed power lines.

Airlines canceled more than 300 flights to and from Okinawa and Kyushu airports. All Nippon Airways Co. and Japan Airlines Corp., the nation's largest domestic carriers, canceled about 200 flights. Japan Transocean Air and Ryukyu Air Commuter Co., subsidiaries of Japan Air, said they grounded 117. About 46,000 travelers were affected.

Okinawa Damage

About 100,000 households on Okinawa were left without power in Man-yi's wake, Kyodo News agency reported, citing local officials. At least 17 people were injured by the storm, the Okinawan government said in a statement. Okinawa is about 2,000 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Two days earlier, as the typhoon churned near Guam, south of Japan, a Panama-registered cargo ship sank, Xinhua News Agency said today. Rescuers saved 10 crew members from the ship, while 12 Chinese crew members were missing, Xinhua said, citing the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center.

The storm is forecast to reach Tokyo on July 15, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Over the next two days, the storm is forecast to lose much of its intensity, with wind speeds ranging from 39 mph to 73 mph.

Frequent Cyclones

Japan is regularly buffeted by tropical cyclones during the northern hemisphere's summer. Nine people died in Kyushu last September when Typhoon Shanshan came ashore, packing winds of 89 mph. A record 10 tropical storms and typhoons hit in 2004, killing more than 60 people and causing billions of dollars of damage.

Kyushu Oil Co.'s operation at its 160,000-barrel-a-day refinery in Oita prefecture in eastern Kyushu hasn't been affected by the storm, spokeswoman Harumi Murata said by telephone in Tokyo. There are no immediate plans to suspend shipments of petroleum products by sea or truck, Murata said.