Typhoon Soudelor to Make Direct Hit on Taiwan

Typhoon Soudelor made landfall Saturday morning (August 8) just north of the Taiwanese city of Hualien on the east coast of the island, bringing fierce winds and torrential rain.

The storm hit the eastern coast early on Saturday and is now moving across the island. Television footage trees uprooted and power poles toppled over, a moped being swept into the air by wind and shipping containers piled on top of each other at a port. “The storm will weaken but we expect more rain, particularly in southern Taiwan”, said Wang Shih-chien, an official with the island’s Central Weather Bureau. Schools and offices were shut across Taiwan Saturday and at least 70 flights were canceled.

Authorities in southeast China ordered the evacuation of about 158,000 people and ships back to port ahead of the typhoon, which was expected to hit Fujian province on Saturday night.

In China, almost 185,000 people have been moved to safer areas in Fujian province, which is expected to take a direct hit from the typhoon, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Yilan County on the northeast side of the island received more than 3 inches of rain between midnight and 1:15 p.m., and parts of New Taipei City had received nearly as much. Residents are strongly urged to seek shelter during the height of the storm to protect themselves against flying debris as widespread structural and tree damage ensues.

“By midnight, tropical storm-force winds will circulate around the entire island before it moves across”, CNN meteorologist Tom Sater said. The girl’s twin sister is also reportedly missing.

Soudelor had been described as a “tremendous typhoon” by the Hong Kong Observatory earlier within the week as it reached most sustained wind speeds of 230 kilometres an hour.

Heavy rain of up to 50cm and howling wind gusts of 160kmh are the main threats from the storm on Taiwan, AccuWeather said.

The strongest winds were in Suao, where gusts reached 237 kilometers per hour (147 miles per hour), the weather bureau said.

The site said Soudelor’s “eyeball” is just hours from slamming into Taiwan, and could strengthen before landfall.

“The girl who died and the one who went missing were swept away by strong waves”, a spokesman for the National Fire Agency told AFP.

“The extreme rainfall totals generated by typhoons combined with the steep mountain front in eastern Taiwan means that the landslide potential for Typhoon Soudelor is very high”, Petley wrote in his blog. In addition a storm surge will also “result in coastal flooding along central and northern portions of Taiwan’s eastern coastline including Hualien County and Yilan County”.