A man walks across a street amid strong winds in Naha, Okinawa, southern Japan, Tuesday, July 8, 2014. Powerful Typhoon Neoguri pounded across the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa on Tuesday, as residents took refuge from destructive winds, towering waves and storm surges. Airports closed and residents were evacuated from low-lying areas and shorelines as the typhoon passed over Okinawa, packing sustained winds of 175 kilometers (108 miles) per hour and gusts up to 250 kph (154 mph), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

A road is submerged by an overflowed river following a typhoon in Yomitan, Okinawa, Wednesday, July 9, 2014. A powerful storm slammed through the southwestern Japanese island of Okinawa, leaving at least 28 people injured and 63,000 homes without power before swerving toward the bigger island of Kyushu on Wednesday.

Kerry Cuny

Former Lawrencian Kerry Cuny returned to work Thursday after emerging unscathed from one of the scariest experiences of her life: Typhoon Neoguri.

The storm that battered the Japanese island of Okinawa this week left toppled trees, flooding and bent railings in its path, according to the Okinawan government, in what it said was the heaviest rainfall experienced there in a half century. More than 30 people were injured, 63,000 lost power from the storm, and the government issued evacuation orders to 125,000 households on Okinawa.

Living most of her life in Lawrence, Cuny has been through tornadoes. But unlike those — which are over in minutes — the typhoon battered her ninth-floor apartment for some 30 hours straight, with howling winds and driving rain that forced its way in through otherwise secure windows.

“It was very scary,” she said.

Cuny, a 1985 Lawrence High School graduate who worked many years at Haskell Indian Nations University, works in human resources at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa. Her husband, Richard Cuny, a Marine, is stationed on the island, and the two moved there in October.

After getting word that the typhoon was headed their way, the Cunys started stocking up on batteries, flashlights, food and such. They were instructed to stay home from work on Tuesday, Kerry Cuny said, and when the storm hit Monday night “it was like someone turned on this major fan.”

Tuesday morning she thought the worst had surely passed, but instead winds just got louder and louder, she said. Heavy rain made for white-out-like conditions at times. They passed the day inside, watching movies and changing out towels placed against the windows as incoming water soaked them through.

She said the weather did not taper off until Wednesday — at least on Okinawa. Neoguri was forecast to hit Kyushu island on Thursday and then travel across Japan’s main island of Honshu, which is where Hiratsuka, one of Lawrence’s sister cities, is.

Cuny feels lucky not to be among homes left without power. And no one they knew was among the injured.

She also has a new appreciation for the island’s architecture, designed with typhoons and tsunamis in mind. Typhoons are tropical cyclones with minimum sustained surface winds of 74 mph or more that occur west of the international dateline (east of the line they’re called hurricanes). Tsunamis are great sea waves caused by an underwater disturbance such as an earthquake.

“When we first got here we thought that everything was kind of drab,” Cuny said. “Now I’m very grateful for the drab buildings, because they are concrete and they are strong.”

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.