A man records waves whipping the shore before Typhoon Meranti makes a landfall on southeastern China, in Wenling, Zhejiang province, China.
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The typhoon, which earlier skirted the southern tip of Taiwan, made landfall in Xiamen early on Thursday, packing winds of around 170 kilometres per hour and bringing downpours across the province, the statement said.
Meranti left a trail of destruction in Taiwan, where nine people were injured and 550,000 homes were left without power. The city also suffered water supply disruptions and some windows on tall buildings shattered, according to local news reports.
The typhoon also killed one person and injured 38 in Taiwan where people were yesterday preparing for the arrival of another storm – Typhoon Malakas, which was forecast to bring heavy rain today.
This handout photograph released and taken by EUMETSAT on September 13, 2016 shows a satellite image of category 5 Typhoon Meranti off the Pacific coast of Taiwan.
More than 330,000 were forced to evacuate their homes on Wednesday after meteorologists said that the Meranti would be the world’s biggest storm this year.
The extent of any damage in the Philippines is still unknown, but a spokesperson from the Philippines’ department of social welfare told TIME Thursday morning that more than 1,600 people had been displaced in the area.
Dozens of flights and train services have been cancelled, state television said, inconveniencing people at the start of the three-day mid-autumn festival holiday.
A vehicle drives past a collapsed traffic sign, toppled by strong winds of typhoon Meranti, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
The typhoon was strongest in the world in 2016 and most powerful in China since 1949 when the Communist China was founded.
Schools and offices were closed in most eastern and southern counties, while power cuts affected 650,000 households. The power lines system damaged heavily, throughout the streets of the coastal city of Xiamen are vehicles downed.
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Meranti is pushing inland and up toward China’s commercial capital of Shanghai on Friday, with heavy rain expected, but it will continue to lose strength on the way.
