A woman stands amid downed tree branches on a street in Xiamen, China’s eastern Fujian province, after Typhoon Meranti made landfall on September 15, 2016.
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One person died and another 38 were injured from the storm in Taiwan, where residents were now preparing for Typhoon Malakas, which was forecast to bring heavy rain on Saturday.
Packing strong winds and heavy rain, the typhoon cut off power to 1.01 million homes, according to Taiwan Power Company, which added that at least 331,000 households were still without power as of 12:58 p.m. Thursday.
Chinese meteorologists have downgraded Meranti from a super typhoon to a tropical depression and said they expect it to fade further as it moves north.
More than 710,000 homes suffered water shortages due to the typhoon, which also forced local schools and businesses to close.
The storm, registered as a super typhoon before losing strength after sweeping southern Taiwan, made landfall in the early hours near the major city of Xiamen. Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said Malakas has maximum sustained winds of 96 miles per hour and wind gusts of 118 miles per hour.
In addition, more than 32,000 boats returned to harbour and over 300,000 people were evacuated. Most domestic flights were cancelled, including all of those from Kaohsiung airport, where global flights were also severely affected.
On Friday, Xiamen, the provincial capital of Fujian, was gradually recovering its water and power supplies, Xinhua reported.
Typhoon Meranti wreaked havoc on the Port of Kaohsiung in Taiwan Wednesday, blowing over several containers stored at a yard in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District, and causing 10 vessels in Kaohsiung Harbor to break loose from their moorings, Focus Taiwan reported.
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“This typhoon is the world’s strongest so far this year”, weather bureau spokeswoman Hsieh Pei-yun said. According to authorities in Taiwan, two people have been injured in the early impact of the typhoon and more than 260,000 houses have lost electricity in various regions in southern Taiwan.
