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Taiwans’ third typhoon of the month kills at least four, hundreds injuried

A damaged tent is see as Typhoon Megi hits Hualien, eastern Taiwan,

TAIPEI, Sept 27 (Reuters) – The third typhoon to hit Taiwan this month killed at least four people and injured hundreds on Tuesday, knocking down trees and cutting power to millions.

Most schools and offices were shut and the north-south bullet train suspended services as Typhoon Megi, packing winds of well over 160 kph (100 mph), roared in from the Pacific.

At least 167 people were injured and more than 11,500 evacuated, the government’s Central Emergency Operation Centre said. Authorities also estimated more than two million households had lost power, while over 45,000 were without water.

Taiwan’s financial markets were closed because of the storm.

Television footage showed people scurrying along city streets clutching umbrellas to try to fend off the rain.

Bus and subway services were mostly suspended in the capital, Taipei, while hundreds of international flights were canceled.

The typhoon was moving across Taiwan and expected to head into the Taiwan Strait and on towards China on Wednesday where it will make landfall in the southeastern province of Fujian.

China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said it had ordered authorities across a large swathe of southern and eastern China to step up disaster prevention preparations.

This month, super Typhoon Meranti killed at least 28 people in China and Taiwan and cut power to more than a million homes.

Typhoons are common in the region at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross warm Pacific waters and bringing fierce wind and rain when they reach land.

(Reporting by J.R. Wu; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in
Beijing; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Typhoon kills at least 11 in China and Taiwan, another storm on the way

A car is seen under toppled trees after Typhoon Meranti swept through Xiamen, Fujian province, China,

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The world’s strongest storm this year killed at last 10 people in China when it hit the southeast coast, the government said on Friday, as rescuers scoured flooded streets and work crews struggled to restore power to more than a million homes.

Typhoon Meranti had largely dissipated by Friday afternoon, a day after it swept in from the Pacific Ocean, clipping the southern tip of Taiwan, and making landfall near the Chinese port city of Xiamen, in Fujian province.

The storm killed seven people in Fujian and three in neighboring Zhejiang province, state media and the government said. Eleven people were missing.

More than 330,000 people were returning to their homes on Friday after being forced to flee a storm that meteorologists said was the world’s biggest this year.

The typhoon killed one person and injured 38 on Taiwan where people were on Friday preparing for another, Typhoon Malakas, which was forecast to bring heavy rain on Saturday.

Streets are seen flooded after Typhoon Meranti made landfall on southeastern China, in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China, September 15, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer

The Taiwan weather bureau issued land and sea warnings, urging people to be on alert for severe weather and flooding.

Meranti was the strongest typhoon to hit that part of China’s coast since 1949, the Xinhua state news agency said.

Pictures on state media showed flooded streets, fallen trees and crushed cars in Xiamen.

Three power transmission towers were blown down in the city and utility crews were trying to restore power. Across Fujian, 1.65 million homes had no electricity, Xinhua reported.

Dozens of flights and train services were canceled on Thursday, disrupting travel at the beginning of a three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

Typhoons are common at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross the warm waters of the Pacific and bringing fierce winds and rain when they hit land.

(Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Typhoon cuts power, lashes China with wind and rain before weakening

People wading through flooded street after Typhoon Meranti

BEIJING (Reuters) – Typhoon Meranti slammed into southeastern China on Thursday with strong winds and lashing rain that cut power to 1.65 million homes, but there were no reports of more casualties in what has been described as the strongest storm of the year globally.

The storm, registered as a super typhoon before losing strength after sweeping across southern Taiwan, made landfall in the early hours near the major city of Xiamen.

Dozens of flights and train services have been canceled, state television said, disrupting travel at the start of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

Pictures on state media showed flooded streets, fallen trees and crushed cars in Xiamen as rescuers in boats evacuated people.

About 320,000 homes were without power in Xiamen. Across the whole of Fujian province, where Xiamen is located, 1.65 million homes had no electricity, state television said.

Large sections of Xiamen also suffered water supply disruptions and some windows in tall buildings shattered, sending glass showering onto the ground below, state news agency Xinhua said.

The report said it was the strongest typhoon to hit that part of the country since the founding of Communist China in 1949 and the strongest so far this year anywhere in the world.

Tens of thousands of people had already been evacuated as the storm approached and fishing boats called back to port.

One person died and 38 were injured in Taiwan, the Central Emergency Operation Centre there said, as the typhoon hit the southern part of the island on Wednesday.

Meranti was a Category 5 typhoon, the strongest classification awarded by Tropical Storm Risk storm tracker, before it made landfall on the mainland and has since been downgraded to Category 2.

Typhoons are common at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross the warm waters of the Pacific and bringing fierce winds and rain when they hit land.

Meranti will continue to lose strength as it pushes inland and up toward China’s commercial capital of Shanghai, but will bring heavy rain.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Faith Hung in TAIPEI; Editing by Nick Macfie and Paul Tait)

Typhoon Nida shuts Hong Kong, more than 150 flights canceled

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Typhoon Nida swept through Hong Kong on Tuesday, shutting down most of the financial hub and disrupting hundreds of flights with gale-force winds, while low-lying areas were put on flood alert.

Hong Kong’s first major typhoon this year brought gusts of more than 100 km per hour (62 mph) and prompted authorities to issue an amber warning, signifying heavy rain, at 5.20 a.m. Hong Kong time.

More than 150 flights were canceled, the Airport Authority said, with Cathay Pacific and Dragonair warning none of their flights would be operating until 2 p.m. at the earliest.

Thousands of passengers were stranded at the airport and about 325 flights are expected to be rescheduled.

The city’s ferry, tram and bus services gradually resumed in the afternoon after the Hong Kong Observatory lowered the tropical cyclone warning to 3 from 8, shortly after midday.

Trading in Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx), including Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect trading, and the derivatives market, would be suspended for the rest of the day.

The Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society suspended trading on Tuesday morning.

Streets had been largely deserted and shops shuttered since Monday evening when the typhoon signal 8 was hoisted, prompting many people to leave work early.

Nida was moving inland and winds near its center had showed signs of weakening, the Hong Kong Observatory said.

Across the border, part of Guangdong province closed offices, factories and schools as the typhoon swept across the southern part of the metropolis of Guangzhou.

Airports in the southern part of the province, including Shenzhen and Zhuhai, canceled most flights while more than 35,000 people were evacuated, state media reported.

Last month, Typhoon Nepartak drove at least 420,000 people from their homes and caused more than 7.1 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in losses in China’s Fujian province alone.

(Reporting By Anne Marie Roantree; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Yimou Lee in Hong Kong; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel)

Natural disasters in China kill more than 800 since June

Flooding in China one of the many natural disasters

BEIJING (Reuters) – More than 800 people have died and about 200 are missing in a series of natural disasters that have struck China since June, the worst casualty figures since a similar period in 2011, state media said on Tuesday.

Large parts of central, eastern and northern China have been hit by flooding this summer, while a typhoon left a wave of destruction this month and a freak tornado killed at least 98 in the eastern province of Jiangsu in June.

Since the year began, 1,074 people have died in natural disasters, 833 of them since June, with 270 missing, Xinhua news agency cited the Ministry of Civil Affairs as saying.

Direct economic losses have reached 298 billion yuan ($44.63 billion) this year, with about 400,000 houses destroyed and 6.24 million residents relocated, the ministry added.

Separately, the government on the southern island province of Hainan issued a typhoon warning for a tropical storm that is expected to hit in the early hours of Wednesday.

($1=6.6769 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Super typhoon hits Taiwan, cutting power and transport

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Super typhoon Nepartak hit Taiwan on Friday, driving thousands of people from their homes, disrupting power supplies and grounding more than 600 flights, authorities said.

Television showed toppled motorcycles and signboards being ripped from buildings and swept across roads in southeast Taiwan, where the year’s first typhoon made landfall.

By afternoon, the typhoon had moved into the Taiwan Strait, weakening as it headed towards China’s southeastern province of Fujian, but flooding and strong winds continued to lash the island’s central and southern areas.

More than 17,300 people were evacuated from their homes, and over 517,000 households suffered power outages, emergency officials said.

“The wind is very strong,” said a resident of Taitung, the eastern Taiwan city where the typhoon landed.

“Many hut roofs and signs have been blown off.”

Three deaths and 172 injuries were reported, bullet train services were suspended and over 340 international and 300 domestic flights canceled, an emergency services website showed.

The typhoon halted work in most of Taiwan. There were no reports of damage at semiconductor plants in the south.

Tropical Storm Risk had rated the typhoon as category 5, at the top of its ranking, but it was weakening and should be a tropical storm by the time it hits Fujian on Saturday morning.

More than 4,000 people working on coastal fish farms in Fujian were evacuated and fishing boats recalled to port, the official China News Service said.

The storm is expected to worsen already severe flooding in parts of central and eastern China, particularly in the major city of Wuhan.

Typhoons are common at this time of year in the South China Sea, picking up strength over warm waters and dissipating over land.

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot cut a swathe of destruction through southern Taiwan, killing about 700 people and causing damage of up to $3 billion.

(Reporting by Faith Hung and J.R. Wu; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Taiwan, China batten down hatches as super typhoon approaches

TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) – Taiwan and China began battening down the hatches on Thursday ahead of the arrival of super Typhoon Nepartak, the first of the year, with fears in China that storm could worsen already severe flooding in the east of the country.

The typhoon is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s mountainous but sparsely populated east coast in the early hours of Friday, where it will loose much of its strength, before crossing over the Taiwan Strait and hitting China on Saturday.

The typhoon has been labeled a category 5 storm on a scale of 1 to 5 by Tropical Storm Risk making it a super typhoon but it should weaken to a topical storm by the time it reaches China.

In Taiwan, authorities announced financial markets would be shut on Friday as cities across the island, including Taipei, announced work and school closures. Airlines began cancelling flights and the bullet train service was suspended.

The island’s weather authorities estimated wind speeds near Nepartak’s center were at least 200 kph (124 mph).

Widespread flooding across central and southern China over the past week has killed about 130 people, damaged more than 1.9 million hectares of crops and led to direct economic losses of more than 38 billion yuan ($5.70 billion).

The city of Wuhan on the Yangtze River, home to 10 million people, has been particularly badly affected, with flooded subway lines and power cuts.

The typhoon is expected to push more rain into already flooded areas in and around Wuhan, the Xinhua news agency said.

Wuhan is a hub for the auto industry, though automakers including Honda <7267.T>, Nissan <7201.T> and state-owned Dongfeng <0489.HK> reported no disruptions.

Peugeot’s <PEUP.PA> venture there said it launched emergency contingency plans, including deploying a sewage pump truck, but factory operations were uninterrupted and its vehicle warehouse unaffected.

Fujian province, opposite Taiwan, has canceled all ferries to Taiwan and Taiwan-controlled islands, and suspended some trains, while Guangdong province has told fishing boats to return to port, the central government said on its website.

Typhoons are common at this time of year in the South China Sea, picking up strength over warm waters and dissipating over land.

Typhoons used to kill many people in China but the government now enforces evacuations and makes preparations well in advance meaning death tolls in recent years have been much lower.

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot cut a wide path of destruction over southern Taiwan, killing about 700 people and causing $3 billion worth of damage.

(Reporting by Taipei newsroom, Ben Blanchard and Jake Spring; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Super Typhoon Nepartak; Taiwan to take full brunt of storm

Typhoon Nepartak set to hit Taiwan and China

By Kami Klein

Until now the northwest Pacific has enjoyed the longest extended streak on record almost 200 days without a named storm. But today, the first super typhoon of 2016 is set to hit Taiwan and China Thursday night into Friday, according to The Weather Channel.

Considered a Category 5 equivalent tropical cyclone, with sustained winds at times of 175 mph, forecasters predict this to be the strongest Super Typhoon since Typhoon Soudelor in August of 2015. Soudelor caused massive rains of up to 50 inches in the mountains, 3.6 million homes with no power, massive flooding, and mudslides. There were 40 confirmed deaths and hundreds injured.

According to local reports, Taiwan’s Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan was confident that Taiwan’s international airport would avoid flooding due to management having all water channels cleared of stones and dirt and water pumps ready. Sandbags have also been placed. Food prices have risen in anticipation of this dangerous storm.

USA Today reports that, Nepartak has seen gusts of up to 207 mph. Taiwan’s military has mobilized thousands of troops and Premier Lin Chuan was briefed by emergency officials Wednesday morning.

A hurricane and typhoon are the same kinds of storms. West of the International Date Line these storms are called typhoons. A Super Typhoon is a storm where the sustained winds reach 150 mph.

For Taiwan, although the incredibly intense winds are dangerous, the concern for the public is mainly for flash flooding and mudslides which will threaten the most lives.

Nearly 725,000 Evacuated as Typhoon Slams Philippines

Nearly 725,000 people were evacuated from their homes as a powerful typhoon brought heavy rain and winds as high as 115 mph to the Philippines on Monday.

Typhoon Melor, known within the Philippines as Typhoon Nona, made landfall at 11 a.m. local time Monday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said.

The NDRRMC reported that 724,839 people had been evacuated ahead of the storm, with 589,235 of them in the Albany province that’s located near where the storm made landfall.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), which is monitoring the typhoon, reported the storm features 93 mph sustained winds and gusts of up to 115 mph. The weather service forecast “heavy to at times intense” rainfall within a 150-mile radius of the storm, and cautioned of the chance for flash floods and landslides.

For comparison’s sake, 93 mph sustained winds would make the storm a category 1 hurricane.

The storm is expected to weaken as it trends further west over the Sibuyan Sea, according to a PAGASA forecast, but meteorologists were expecting wind gusts could still reach 105 mph on Tuesday and 75 mph on Wednesday. The weather service warned the high winds could damage or destroy buildings in other provinces, as well as impact local banana, rice and corn crops.

The NDRRMC reported that the eastern and northern portions of the island of Samar, as well as the Sorsogon province lacked power because the typhoon brought down transmission lines. Additional outages were possible, PAGASA warned. The weather service also issued flood advisories throughout the central Philippines and warned of the chance for 10-foot storm surges.

The storm was also wreaking havoc on travel, as the NDRRMC reported that 42 flights were cancelled as a result of the typhoon, and some 6,800 would-be sea travelers were stranded because of abnormally rough sea conditions. A host of shipping channels were also disrupted.

Typhoon Koppu weakens rapidly after killing 58 in Philippines

Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Erik De Castro

CASIGURAN, Philippines (Reuters) – A typhoon that dumped heavy rains on the northern Philippines, killing 58 people as it flattened houses and destroyed crops, was petering out on Wednesday, weather officials said.

Typhoon Koppu weakened from a tropical depression into a low pressure area, but authorities maintained a warning to ferries and fishermen on three northern islands not to go to sea.

Raging floodwaters and landslides triggered by the typhoon in the main Philippine island of Luzon caused most of the deaths, Romina Marasigan, a spokeswoman for the national disaster agency, told reporters.

More than 100,000 people are still in temporary shelters as Koppu destroyed more than 6.57 billion pesos ($141.63 million) worth of crops, infrastructure and homes.

“We were terrified and prayed as we stayed under a table for hours after strong winds blew away the roof and walls of our house,” said one survivor, Andres Subang, 72, wiping away tears as he told of how his family made it through the disaster.

“I have experienced countless typhoons in my lifetime, but this was the worst. It left nothing, we have no food and no more livelihood.”

Farm officials said flooding destroyed 5 percent of expected fourth-quarter production in rice-producing provinces.

The coast guard said seven people died when a boat sank in the central Philippines.

Authorities in the coastal town of Casiguran, where Koppu made landfall at the weekend as a category 4 typhoon, deployed heavy equipment to clear roads of uprooted trees, toppled electric posts and debris.

“When we went around the town, we saw the typhoon’s destructive impact, there were so many houses destroyed,” municipal official Nida Coralde told Reuters, adding that distribution of relief supplies had begun.

Strong winds reduced people’s homes to matchwood, leaving them with nothing, said one survivor, as residents began work to repair homes.

The typhoon grounded military planes and helicopters on Tuesday, forcing the government to send in food, water and other relief materials by road. Some areas were still flooded, without power and communication links.

The Philippines is hit by 20 typhoons every year, on average.

(Writing by Roli Ng & Manuel Mogato; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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