A POWERFUL typhoon ripped through South Korea’s southern and eastern coasts with tree-snapping winds and flooding rains Thursday, knocking out power to more than 270,000 homes and leaving at least one person dead.

Typhoon Maysak had weakened to a tropical storm that was east of North Korea around midday, South Korea’s weather agency said. North Korean state TV showed flooding along the eastern coast but didn’t immediately report any casualties.

Japan’s coast guard was searching for a livestock ship carrying 42 crew members and 5,800 cows that made a distress call off a southern Japanese island in seas roughened by the typhoon early Wednesday.

More than 2,400 South Koreans evacuated their homes due to the typhoon, which damaged or flooded dozens of homes and vehicles, ripped off signboards and toppled scores of trees, utility poles and lampposts. A woman in the southern city of Busan died after being injured by shattered window glass.

Four nuclear power reactors near Busan automatically shut down because of electricity supply issues, but no leak of radioactive materials was detected.(SD-Agencies)