Nearly 400,000 households in Taiwan had no power on Monday, hours after Typhoon Danas slammed into the island’s southwestern coast, killing at least two people and leaving more than 300 others injured.
Typhoon Danas made landfall in Chiayi County late Sunday night with the force of a Category 1 hurricane, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration. It moved offshore early Monday after scraping along Taiwan’s west coast, and was approaching mainland China in the afternoon as a tropical storm.
As of Monday afternoon, nearly 400,000 households across the island had no electricity, according to Taipower, the state electricity company. Schools and businesses in dozens of cities and counties were closed.
Summer typhoons are common in Taiwan, but they usually make landfall on the island’s mountainous and lightly populated east coast. The Central Weather Administration said that Danas was the first typhoon to make landfall in Chiayi County since the agency began keeping detailed typhoon records in 1958.
President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan said on social media that the typhoon had followed a rare track. “The whole of Taiwan will be affected by the wind and rain one after another,” he said as the storm approached on Sunday.
The two confirmed deaths occurred in Tainan, the island’s oldest city and former capital. A 60-year-old man died after the typhoon caused a power outage that shut off his breathing apparatus, and a 69-year-old man was crushed to death by a fallen tree, according to the National Fire Agency.
The government did not give details on the conditions of people who were injured.
Amy Chang Chien is a reporter and researcher for The Times in Taipei, covering Taiwan and China.
The post 2 Dead and 300 Injured After Typhoon Danas Strikes Taiwan appeared first on New York Times.
