A powerful typhoon is heading for Japan's Okinawa islands.
Typhoon Nabi - Korean for "butterfly" - could strengthen to super-typhoon status by Saturday morning local time, Tropical Storm Risk group at University College London said on its website.
But an official at Japan's Meteorological Agency said it was unlikely Nabi would have anything like Katrina's destructive power.
"Typhoons that approach Japan are weaker than a storm like Katrina because the sea water here is usually cooler than that of the Gulf of Mexico, while prevailing winds cause typhoons to dissipate relatively rapidly," the official said.
As of 3.00am Irish time, Nabi had winds of up to 100 miles mph near its centre and was located near the Marianas Islands, moving north-northwest at 20 kilometres an hour.
Should the storm stay on its course it would pass over Okinawa on Sunday or Monday, the official said.
Japan's main islands, excluding Okinawa, were hit by a record 10 typhoons in 2004, compared with three in a normal season, but so far this year only one tropical storm has made landfall.