A typhoon triggered floods and knocked out power in some areas of Taiwan on Tuesday, forcing schools and offices to close, and then swept towards China, where hundreds of thousands were evacuated.
As of 7am GMT, the centre of typhoon Kaemi was just off China’s eastern coast moving north-west at 17kph toward the city of Xiamen, officials said.
The storm had sustained winds as high as 108kph and maximum gusts of 137kph, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau.
About 435 000 people were evacuated in China as rain and winds built up along the coast, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.
It said 3 000 armed police were ready to begin rescue and relief work.
Authorities have prepared 130 vans, 80 rescue speedboats, 3 500 life vests and 2 000 life buoys, Xinhua reported.
In Taiwan, six people, including a seven-year-old girl, were injured, mostly on roads in the eastern part of the island, while about 475 people had been evacuated, government officials said.
Kaemi closed schools and offices in five cities and counties in south-eastern Taiwan and the outlying island of Penghu. Some schools were also closed in central Taiwan.
More than 40 domestic flights were cancelled in south-eastern Taiwan and in Kaohsiung, some international flights were suspended, airport officials said.
Transport officials said Kaohsiung harbour, Taiwan’s largest, was closed, although the Keelung port in the north remained open.
The typhoon also knocked out power to about 30 000 customers, mostly in the east coast county of Hualien, said Taiwan Power spokesperson Clint Chou.
”The winds were quite strong,” Chou said. ”Because of the broken poles, we perhaps need some time to restore power.”
In China, authorities in coastal Fujian and Guangdong provinces ordered ships to return to port and warned local officials to monitor major rivers, reservoirs and dams already swollen from heavy rains in the wake of Tropical Storm Bilis.
Xinhua said Kaemi could cause more problems in already flood-affected areas of the country. Chinese authorities expect the storm to reach Fujian and Zhejiang provinces on Wednesday, and an emergency alert took effect there on Tuesday morning, Xinhua reported.
Earlier this month, Bilis killed more than 600 people in the Philippines, Taiwan and China in floods, landslides and other incidents. Chinese authorities say Bilis killed at least 612 people on the mainland.
Tropical storms and typhoons frequently hit Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong and southern China during a season that lasts from early summer to late autumn. – Reuters