Now classed as a Super Typhoon, Nepartak is expected to hit Taiwan early Friday morning local time.
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Nepartak is the first super typhoon reported in 2016, and the largest in Taiwan in the last six years.
As many as 15,400 people were evacuated from their homes in preparation for the storm, while 187,830 households suffered power outages, emergency officials said.
The country’s financial markets will be closed on Friday, as Reuters reported, and “cities across the island, including Taipei, announced work and school closures”.
The island’s railway services also have been suspended, while more than 600 domestic and worldwide flights were canceled on Friday.
Meanwhile, unscheduled short-haul train service resumed in northern Taiwan yesterday afternoon after train lines across the nation were shut down for much of the day because of the storm. The storm could take up to 12 hours to pass over the region bringing devastating winds and up to a foot of rain.
The VIIRS instrument aboard NASA-NOAA-DOD’s Suomi NPP satellite captured a close-up image of Super Typhoon Nepartak’s eye surrounded by powerful thunderstorms.
One man drowned off a beach in Hualien county Thursday, according to an official tally, with another 66 people injured so far, mostly by falling objects.
Conditions are expected to deteriorate significantly before the storm hits, the weather bureau said.
Nepartak is likely to maintain its super typhoon status up until it reaches Taiwan and now is the equivalent of a category 5 hurricane (253 kph or 157 mph).
More than 15,000 people have been moved from their homes which were prone to landslides or flooding and about 3,700 of them were in shelters.
The typhoon will linger around Taiwan until late Friday as it slowly makes its way toward southern China, Chen Yi-liang of the Central Weather Bureau said early Friday.
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The island’s weather authorities estimated wind speeds near Nepartak’s center were at least 200 kilometers per hour. After crossing the island, Nepartak is expected to make a second landfall in China on Saturday as a tropical storm. Airlines across southern China cancelled or rerouted flights in and out of Taiwan.
