Wind and rain knocked out power to almost 200,000 homes, forced schools and businesses to close and canceled flights.
Advertisement
One person died and 38 were injured in Taiwan, the Central Emergency Operation Centre there said, as the typhoon hit the southern part of the island on Wednesday. It said Meranti knocked out power in nearly 1 million homes and water in more than 700,000.
Meanwhile, three hours south, in Xiamen city, windows were shattered in tall buildings and the city suffered a mass power outage as the typhoon struck.
Chinese meteorologists downgraded the storm, named Meranti, from a super typhoon to a tropical depression Thursday afternoon and said they expected it to fade further as it moved north.
The balloon was part of festivities for the city’s annual mid-autumn festival which gets underway Thursday.
As it hit Xiamen city in Fujian Province, the strong winds pulled down a moon and sent it tumbling down the streets.
At one point it was generating winds of over 250-kilometers per hour, making it the most powerful storm on earth this year.
After meeting with the locals, Tsai asked that more plumbers be sent to the flooded regions and that Taiwan Power Company speed up repairs on the power grid.
For those traveling to or from the impacted region, most domestic flights have been canceled and worldwide flights have been facing delays and cancellations.
Advertisement
But there were no reports of more casualties in what has been described as the strongest storm of the year globally. For most areas Meranti came with sufficient warning for preparations to be made, but nonetheless there has been widespread damage, distress and injury’.
