(Taipei) An island attached to Taiwan recorded record force winds caused by the typhoon Koinuthe territory’s central weather services said on Thursday.
“Gusts of a maximum of 95.2 meters per second were measured on Orchid Island last night, which is a new record for Taiwan,” the weather service told AFP, which is equivalent to winds of 342.72 kilometers per hour.
Taiwanese authorities on Wednesday canceled more than 100 international and domestic flights and closed schools in parts of the south of the island, ahead of the typhoon’s expected arrival. Koinuthe second to hit the territory in a month.
More than 200 people were also evacuated for fear of landslides in the south of the island.
The typhoon was initially expected to hit the south of the island of Taiwan, but a weather forecaster told AFP on Thursday that this trajectory was now “uncertain”.
Taiwan experiences frequent tropical storms from May to November, but the typhoon Haikuiin early September, was the first to hit the island in four years, triggering torrential rains, strong winds and forcing nearly 8,000 people to evacuate their homes.
After the Taiwan region, the typhoon is expected to head towards the eastern coast of China’s Guangdong province which includes the city of Guangzhou, according to the Hong Kong Meteorological Observatory.