At least 163,000 people were evacuated to higher ground and more people reportedly fled in the nearby Zhejiang province, the BBC said. While some supplies had been restored, 1.5 million households were still without power on Saturday afternoon, it said. Rivers broke their banks under torrential rain and towering waves pounded the island’s coastline.
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Strong winds and heavy rains were expected to continue in Taiwan. The electricity is out. “I’m hiding at home and scared to go outside”, housewife Pan Danyun, who lives in Fujian’s Fuzhou City, told reporters.
Those killed included a mother and her 8-year-old daughter swept out to sea, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported, adding that the girl’s twin sister is unaccounted for.
Another man, aged 83, died after being buried in the mudslide. A teammate of his was also hit and was seriously injured.
The typhoon also left at least 379 people injured.
It is ripping up trees and tearing down billboards, and triggered a landslide in at least one village.
The disaster agency said a total of 923 families, or 3,843 individuals, in the Western Visayas, Central Visayas and Soccsksargen regions with 245 families, or 1,100 people, staying in evacuation centers.
The West Pacific Basin has seen 10 typhoons so far in 2015.
Forecasters predict the storm will weaken before hitting China, but it is still predicted to pack hurricane strength winds.
PICHI CHUANG/REUTERS A man looks at a vehicle damaged by a fallen roof near a bent traffic light caused by strong winds from Typhoon Soudelor in Taipei, Taiwan, August 8, 2015.
The center of the storm made landfall in eastern Taiwan at 4:40 a.m. Saturday.
But Chinese authorities are taking no chances. Taiwanese airlines have announced flight adjustments, canceling a number of domestic and global flights for Saturday, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency. Thousands of police and soldiers were on standby to aid those affected by Soudelor.
In Wencheng county, under the jurisdiction of Wenzhou, precipitation within 24 hours hit 645 mm, the heaviest in a hundred years, officials said.
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“Compared to the past, this typhoon breaks several records”, Lee said.
