Typhoon Emma was a powerful typhoon that brought winds and of rain to

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

(then US territory of the Ryukyu Islands) and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. Emma left 77 people dead and over $8 million (1956

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

) in damage. Emma was one of several typhoons to cause significant damage to

during the mid-1950s.

Meteorological history

Forming from a tropical disturbance near the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...

, Emma churned southwest before gaining typhoon status on September 3. Emma then recurved after reaching Category 3 status. Moving west-northwest, Emma reached a peak intensity of as it bypassed

. Emma then brushed

and

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

as a strong Category 3 typhoon before swinging to the northeast and hitting

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and the far eastern

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

.Unisys (200
EMMA Best track
URL Accessed:October 11, 2006

Preparations

The Tokyo Weather Center began to issue warnings when Emma was spotted on September 3, east-southeast of

Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high. ...

. During the preparations,

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

and

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. Immune factors and immune ...

were stocked and U.S. installations in

were placed on alert. An army hospital in

Ryūkyū The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...

was evacuated as patients were transferred to storm shelters where they had pie and beans.United States Arm
Typhoon Emma Report
APO 343 URL Accessed:October 11, 2006

Impact

Emma killed 77 people and caused $8–12 million (1956 dollars) in damage across

and

Okinawa

Most heeded typhoon watches, either evacuating or bolting storm shutters and stowing away light equipment. On

's eastern beaches however, more than a dozen marines who were unaware of the danger came to the beaches eager to surf in the thundering waves. Eleven of the Marines had already paddled out into open water when they realized the danger, but it was too late. A strong

rip current A rip current, often simply called a rip (or misleadingly a ''rip tide''), is a specific kind of water current that can occur near beaches with breaking waves. A rip is a strong, localized, and narrow current of water which moves directly away ...

had overwhelmed the soldiers and all eleven marines drowned.Longshore, David. ''Encyclopedia of hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones''. Facts on File (1998) When the storm struck, it brought gusts that ripped apart runways and smashed hangars. Heavy rains brought flashfloods that damaged homes and buildings. A total of fell at Kadena Air Force Base in 21 hours on September 8. By the time Emma left the battered island, there was $8 million (1956

US dollars The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from Dollar, other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American ...

) in damage. The U.S.-held island of

was hard hit by Emma. Numerous planes, runways and barracks were ether damaged or destroyed. The island was in the recovering phases when in 1957, Typhoon Faye, another powerful typhoon did the same damage ($11.3 million (1957 dollars)). Later the island was struck again by Typhoon Charlotte of 1959.

Elsewhere

, Emma brought 22 inches of rain that caused extensive flooding which left 34 people dead and thousands homeless. At its landfall near South Korea. Emma sank dozens of ships and wrecked homes and buildings. In all 42 people were dead and 35 missing, most of them fishermen.

Loss of a hurricane hunter

Emma was also one of the few tropical cyclones to down a plane. It was a Boeing RB-50 hurricane hunter plane, which was sent up to study wind velocities in the storm's right front quadrant. The plane went down in the storm, taking all 16 crew members with it. Although no direct cause was stated, it was speculated that the winds of the typhoon caused the airplane to go into a tailspin. Another theory was that the low pressures caused the plane's altimeters to give a false reading, and that caused the pilots to assume that they were flying much higher than they actually were, causing them to continue flying on their assumed altitude until they crashed. The theory was also applied to what happened to a hurricane hunter which crashed during

Hurricane Janet Hurricane Janet was the most powerful tropical cyclone of the 1955 Atlantic hurricane season and one of the strongest North Atlantic tropical cyclone, Atlantic hurricanes on record. Janet was also the first named storm to have 1,000 deaths and th ...

in 1955.

Sources

Book

* David Longshore. "Typhoon Emma." Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons and Cyclones. David Longshore. New York: Facts on File, 1998, Pg; 113-114.

World Wide Web

Typhoon Emma Report
at the

United States Army Center of Military History The United States Army Center of Military History (CMH) is a directorate within the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. The Institute of Heraldry remains within the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Arm ...

JMA General Information
of Typhoon Emma (5612) from Digital Typhoon
Disaster Information
of Typhoon Emma (5612) from Digital Typhoon
Unisys (Typhoon Emma track)

Unisys (Typhoon Emma Best track data from JTWC)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emma (1956) 1956 Pacific typhoon season Typhoons in Japan Typhoons in South Korea Typhoons in Russia Typhoon Emma Typhoons