Two people were killed and 72 were injured as Super Typhoon Nepartak ravaged Taiwan early Friday with winds up to 150 miles per hour and severe flooding.
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More than 20,000 households in Taitung County were without electricity Saturday morning, some 24 hours after Typhoon Nepartak knocked down power lines in the southeastern county with its record breaking gusts.
Typhoons used to kill many people in China but the government now enforces evacuations and takes precautions well in advance, which has helped save many lives.
Typhoon Nepartak made first landfall early yesterday in eastern Taiwan, packing winds of up to 190 kms per hour gusting up to 234 kms per hour leaving two people dead and 72 injured.
On Friday, 170 flights were canceled at the airport in Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian Province, and 245 in the airport of Xiamen City of Fujian.
In Taiwan, electric outages continue to affect nearly 250,000 households – more than 90 percent of them in the island’s south – down from 400,000 households earlier.
Five airports were closed, prompting the cancellation of almost 400 flights, while more than 300 trains were also cancelled, Xinhua said.
Although the typhoon was losing power, disaster response officials remain concerned that the heavy rains could trigger floods and landslides in the rugged terrain. More than 15,000 residents in these areas were evacuated. Its name means “warrior” in Micronesian. “However, regardless of its intensity, heavy rainfall will continue to be a concern in Taiwan and southeast China, likely triggering areas of flooding into the weekend”.
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In 2009, Typhoon Morakot cut a wide swathe of destruction through southern Taiwan, killing about 700 people and causing up to $US3 billion ($4 billion) of damage. A powerful typhoon was approaching eastern Taiwan, churning up huge waves and wind Thursday that grounded fishing boats, commercial ships and planes. There were no reports of damage at semiconductor plants in the south.
