Parts of Taiwan were brought to a standstill yesterday as super-typhoon Meranti skirted past the island’s southern tip, bringing the strongest winds in 21 years and disrupting traffic ahead of a major holiday.
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After battering Taiwan, Destroyer Typhoon Meranti has made landfall in southeastern China, bringing powerful winds and rain. Across the whole of Fujian province, where Xiamen is located, 1.65 million homes had no electricity, state television said.
Around 1.65 million people were without power across Fujian province on Thursday, more than 300,000 of them in Xiamen, local media said.
Authorities said dozens of flights and train services were cancelled on Thursday due to the typhoon.
Super Typhoon Meranti caused chaos in Xiamen after making landfall in Tong’an District at 3:05 a.m. today.
TV footage shows fallen trees, flooded streets, shattered windows and crushed cars too while the rescue operations. Hundreds of people were also evacuated in China and emergency teams prepared for the storm as it moved towards China’s Fujian Province.
A motorcyclist is bowled over as strong winds from Super Typhoon Meranti hit Taiwan.
Thousands of others were forced to flee their homes and around 350,000 households were still without power as of Thursday morning.
Taiwan’s Central News Agency said one person was killed and 44 were injured on the island by the storm.
The world’s strongest typhoon so far this year has also been monitored as the strongest one hitting southern Fujian Province since the local meteorological records were kept in 1949.
“Meranti has weakened considerably after making landfall on Mainland China and as the remnants move towards Shanghai, it is still capable of delivering unsafe wind gusts and heavy precipitation”.
“Typhoon Merandi is away from the Taiwan main island, but still our staff and volunteers are in the mobilization preparation”, according to a Taiwan Red Cross spokeswoman.
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Typhoons are quite common at this time of the year as they pick up strength while they cross the warm waters of the Pacific.
