SAKHALINSK, Oct 7, SPA-- A powerful cyclone with violent winds is moving from Japan to the Kurile islands and Sakhalin. The storm with heavy rains will hit the Southern Kuriles late on Saturday. The wind speed will exceed 120 kilometres an hour. Waves in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific area near the Kuriles will be four to six metres high, Itar-Tass reported. Sakhalin meteorologists issued a storm warning all over the territory, and rescuers repeated it for the Far Eastern fleet working near the Southern Kuriles. Fishing and transport vessels were hurrying to escape to the safer side of the islands, the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk rescue coordinating centre's head Nikolai Kim said. According to earlier reports, the cyclone was moving at the speed of 30 kilometres an hour along Japan northward. The wind speed in the storm centre was 50 metres a second (180 kilometres an hour). The cyclone will hit the south of Sakhalin most severely on Sunday, October 8. Rains and winds will rage over Sakhalin and the Kuriles for three days, and then the cyclone will leave for the Pacific.
