(Yilan) Taiwan closed schools on Wednesday, suspended stock market activity and evacuated thousands of people at risk as the typhoon approached. Gaemiwhich is expected to be “the most powerful” to hit the island in eight years and where its violent winds and torrential rains have already left one person dead.
Accompanied by gusts of 190 kilometers per hour, Gaemi It was originally expected to make landfall in the northeast, an area including the capital Taipei, around 10 p.m. local time (10 a.m. Eastern time) before hitting China on Thursday. It has already affected Japan and the Philippines, where one person has died.
A forecaster from Taiwan’s weather service, however, said the typhoon was currently only 30 km from the eastern coast and was expected to reach the Hualien region “in the next few hours.”
” Gaemi is expected to be the most powerful typhoon in eight years to make landfall in Taiwan since Typhoon Nepartak in 2016,” Huang En-hong, a forecaster with Taiwan’s Central Meteorological Administration, told AFP.
The first typhoon of the season
Even before its arrival, the typhoon brought torrential rains and strong winds that killed a motorcyclist who was crushed by a falling tree in the southern city of Kaohsiung, authorities said.
More than 4,000 people were evacuated from three northern regions, particularly Hualien (northeast), a mountainous area with a high risk of landslides. By the afternoon, nearly 60 people had been injured in Taiwan, according to an initial report.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te urged everyone to “put safety first.” Gaemi “This is the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan this year,” Lai told reporters. “I hope that through our joint efforts, the impact of the typhoon can be reduced. […]. I also encourage my fellow citizens across the country not to go out, unless necessary, during the typhoon, and especially not to dangerous places.”
Taiwanese authorities declared Wednesday a public holiday to minimize risks. They had already canceled some annual military exercises Tuesday due to weather conditions. Train and ferry services were temporarily halted and hundreds of international and domestic flights were canceled Wednesday.
“We expect the typhoon’s impact to extend” through Friday, warned Cheng Jia-ping, the head of Taiwan’s Central Meteorological Administration, adding that the public should “take precautions against heavy rain and strong winds.”
Massive waves hit the coast of Yilan County in the northeast. In Taipei, shops and government offices were closed due to the public holiday.
Thursday in China
Taiwanese chip giant TSMC has assured that it will maintain normal production and that the company “has activated typhoon alert preparation procedures” at all its factories.
Taiwan is used to frequent tropical storms from July to October, but experts believe climate change has increased their intensity.
The typhoon is expected to cross the Taiwan Strait and hit China’s eastern provinces on Thursday, where authorities have issued a red storm alert and partially suspended train traffic for that day.
Local media, citing authorities, reported that waves of four to six metres high could hit the coast.
In Japan, authorities in Okinawa, a southern island region, have urged people to “exercise great vigilance in the face of storms, strong waves” and flooding.
In the Philippines, torrential rains in Manila caused widespread flooding and a landslide in a nearby mountainous province killed four people.