One person was missing, dozens were injured and tens of thousands of households were without power after Typhoon Podul battered eastern and southern Taiwan on Wednesday.
The storm made landfall in Taitung, an eastern county, in the early afternoon with a maximum wind speed of 96 miles per hour, equal to that of a Category 2 hurricane, but then weakened after hitting the island’s central mountains, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration. The eye of the storm had crossed Taiwan by late afternoon and was churning toward the southeast coast of mainland China, it said.
The storm is expected to make landfall on China’s eastern seaboard Wednesday night or early Thursday local time, according to the China Meteorological Administration.
More than 7,000 people were evacuated in southern and eastern Taiwan as the storm approached.
In Chiayi, a southern county in Taiwan, a 28-year-old man surnamed Lin was missing after waves swept him away while he was fishing during the typhoon, according to the National Fire Agency of Taiwan. In addition, at least 33 people suffered storm-related injuries, the Taiwanese government said.
By late afternoon, power had been restored to about 80,000 of the more than 130,000 households that had experienced outages,according to Taipower, the island’s main utility company. More than 200 instances of storm-related damage were reported, according to the fire agency.
The typhoon lashed the island with heavy rains and powerful winds that prompted the closing of schools and businesses in nearly a dozen cities and counties.
More than 400 flights were canceled on Wednesday because of the weather, and service on dozens of shipping routes was suspended, according to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of Taiwan.
Typhoons frequently strike Taiwan and the Philippines during the summer. In July, Typhoon Danas caused two deaths, injured more than 700 people and caused over $15 million in agricultural losses in Taiwan. The government, under President Lai Ching-te, has been criticized for its response, with residents and opposition politicians accusing officials of reacting too slowly to the disaster.
Amy Chang Chien is a reporter and researcher for The Times in Taipei, covering Taiwan and China.
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