Breaking news out of Japan, the Osaka Kansai Airport (KIX) has become flooded following the departure of Typhoon Jebi.This typhoon has been rather devastating, with damage across the country, 11 confirmed deaths and over 600 people injured. Fortunately, Japan's infrastructure is rather robust and has been designed with extreme seismic and weather events in mind. This airport, in particular, is privately owned and most likely has the insurance to recover.[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/NHKWORLD_News/status/1037284050250096640[/EMBED_TWITTER]If you are not familiar with Osaka Kansai Aiport, it is the third largest airport in Japan and the primary international airport for Osaka, followed by a smaller airport for domestic travel on the mainland. It sits off the coast of Osaka on a manmade artificial island.As such, it is especially prone to impacts from the surrounding ocean, including large swells and tsunamis.

How bad is the damage?

The airport was hit by high winds and waves created by the storm surge on Tuesday local time.

The main runways were completely flooded, and the terminal building itself had it basement section waterlogged. However, not a single person has been severally harmed.

Passengers were stranded overnight and had to be ferried over to the nearby Kobe Airport once the sky was cleared.

To make matters even more serious, a large 3000-tonne fuel tanker (The Houn Maru) slipped its moorings and was swept into the bridge that connects the airport to the mainland, crushing several lanes and dramatically wedging itself into the side of the bridge, severely damaging itself and the only link to the island.

Here is a video of the ship during the storm.

Here is an aerial photo of the bridge after the skies had cleared (with buses moving out loaded with grounded passengers):

And the ship:

The tanker's 11 crew members had to be rescued, but no one was hurt in the crash. Investigations are ongoing to find out what happened and why the ship was loose.

We imagine this will hamper efforts to repair and reopen the airport. Approx 3000 passengers were trapped and delayed by the storm, which is a huge backlog that will need to be sorted by the authorities and their airlines.

Several ANA and JAL planes have been seen to be standard at the airport. We are not sure if they are damaged (or at least waterlogged) but until the runways are inspected and repaired, they will be grounded. This means for these airlines that their capacity is simply taken off the table, and many flights on their networks will be affected.

It also said the airport's terminal buildings have been hit by partial power failures, and some airlines' computer systems have been affected.

Additionally, as this airport is rather significant hub for these airlines and a major travel destination, we expect this to have a cascading effect onto other inter-japan services.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ordered government officials to do all they can to re-open the airport as soon as possible. - nhk.or.jp