Three deaths and 172 injuries were reported, bullet train services were suspended and more than 340 worldwide and 300 domestic flights cancelled, an emergency services website showed.
Advertisement
Typhoon Nepartak brought chaos to Taiwan on Friday, killing two people, injuring 72 and battering the island’s east coast with ferocious winds and torrential rain. China’s meteorological administration has said the typhoon was likely to make landfall in eastern China on Saturday morning.
The 200 kilometre-radius storm had weakened to a “moderate” typhoon, Taiwan’s weather bureau said, and was moving north-west at a speed of 12kph.
Thus far, about half of those who lost power already had it restored.
The storm is expected to hit China’s Fujian province by Saturday morning.
More than 250mm of rain fell in about four hours early on Saturday in the nearby city of Putian, where almost 23,000 people have fanned out to check over-strained water management systems.
Typhoon Nepartak made landfall on Taiwan at 5:50 a.m. Friday at Taitung’s Taimali Township.
Waves crash at the coast as Typhoon Nepartak approaches in Yilan, Taiwan July 7, 2016.
The local government had also asked ships at sea to dock and all fishermen to evacuate, with 66 tugs and three helicopters lined up to help, Chinese official news portal people.com.cn reported Friday.
Reports late Thursday from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii, operated by the U.S. Navy and Air Force, showed Nepartak with maximum sustained winds up to 161 miles per hour and gusts up to 196 miles per hour.
In the worst hit province, Hubei, 69 people were killed and 16 more reported missing.
People in Taiwan are being warned to brace themselves for the arrival of Super Typhoon Nepartak.
More than 4000 people working on coastal fish farms in Fujian were evacuated and fishing boats recalled to port, the official China News Service said.
Advertisement
The “super-typhoon” is expected to dump torrential rain on the whole island with mountainous areas forecast to be deluged with up to 600 millimetres, potentially triggering landslides that have in the past claimed hundreds of lives.
