Domino’s Driver: Not all heroes wear capes. In fact, some of them drive delivery bikes.
Some of them drive delivery bikes to ensure that their customers get their pizzas, even though the worst storm in a quarter of a century just rolled in off the sea.
The hero in question is a Domino’s Pizza driver in Japan, who was caught on camera battling against the 135 miles per hour winds of Typhoon Jebi in an attempt to get his cargo to his customers.
The incident was filmed in the city of Osaka in southern Japan, which has been ravaged by Typhoon Jebi in recent days.
The storm, which is being described as the worst to hit Japan in 25 years, hit yesterday and has caused untold damage, killing at least 11 people and destroying infrastructure.
Thousands were evacuated from Osaka as cars were flipped over, the airport was closed and the bridge that links it to the mainland was damaged when a tanker broke free of its moorings and smashed into it.
Winds blew to highs of 135mph and the artificial island that houses Kansai International Airport was cut off, stranding 3000 people.
“We’re very sorry,” said an airport official to a press conference. “We’ll transport all the travellers who wish to get out of the airport by the end of today, but we’ll continue the bus and ferry service tomorrow.”
Osaka is in Japan’s industrial heartland and countless businesses were forced to shut as power supplies failed and it was too dangerous for people to get to work. 400,000 homes are currently without power.
While Japan was reeling from the extreme weather in the south, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck in the north. The earthquake was followed by landslides, but no tsunami was reported.
Sixteen people are thought to have been killed and 3 million homes are without power after the thermal power station on the island of Hokkaido was damaged.
The earthquake hit around 40 miles to the east of Sapporo, the largest local city, in the early hours of the morning last night.
People began to panic buy food and supplies, as earthquakes are often followed by aftershocks and further tremors.
“Large quakes often occur, especially within two to three days [of a big one],” said Toshiyuki Matsumori of Japan’s meteorological office.
“We urge residents to pay full attention to seismic activity and rainfall and not to go into dangerous areas.”
