The typhoon brought fierce winds and rain to Taiwan. 62 million households because the demise toll rose to six.
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BBC reports that schools and offices have been closed, while flights and train services have been cancelled.
Television footage timber uprooted and energy poles toppled over, a moped being swept into the air by wind and delivery containers piled on prime of one another at a port.
Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau warned that mountain areas should be on alert for landslides and low-lying areas for flooding.
Storm chaser James Reynolds spoke to CNN Saturday from southeastern Taiwan and said that ferocious winds and blinding rain hit as the storm made landfall.
As Typhoon Soudelor approaches, surfers remove surf boards from the beach, August 6, 2015, in Yilan County, northeastern Taiwan.
Officials said the search for the missing girl would continue Saturday. A firefighter was killed, and another injured when they were run over by a drunk driver while trying to remove a fallen tree – caused by the typhoon – from the middle of a road.
Typhoon Soudelor hit the city of Putian in Fujian province late Saturday night and was downgraded into a tropical storm as it moved across the province.
Forecasters had predicted the storm would have maximum sustained winds at landfall of about 125 miles per hour – the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane – and parts of the country have already seen 12 inches of rain as the storm approached, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau.
Taipei resident Jack Lin confirmed Jiang’s statement, adding that metal sheeting and rods from a half-constructed stadium were strewn about, and that authorities in Taiwan’s capital had shut down public transportation for the time being. “I saw a vehicle crushed to bits”.
At one point, 3.22 million households were without electricity, authorities said – the largest outage attributed to a typhoon in Taiwan.
“The metal roof of the house next door to mine was completely blown away”.
Soudelour has drawn comparisons with 2009’s Typhoon Morakot, which cut a wide path of destruction over southern Taiwan.
Authorities in southeast China evacuated about 163,000 people and ordered around 32,000 ships back to port ahead of the typhoon, Xinhua reported.
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Provincial officials have been sent to supervise efforts to battle the typhoon in Fujian cities.
