Strong typhoon pounds Taiwan, businesses shut

By Richard Dobson

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Typhoon Haitang slammed into Taiwan on
Monday, injuring 17 people and forcing government offices,
schools and financial markets to shut across the island.

Local media said four people had died in the lashing winds
and torrential rain, though the National Fire Agency said it
could not confirm the deaths were related to the typhoon.

The agency said 17 people had been injured in the storm,
which was forecast to move on with lower wind speeds to China’s
coastal rice-growing provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian.

Packing winds of up to 184 km/h (114 mph) and gusts of 227
km/h, Haitang dumped nearly 1 meter (3 ft 3 in) of rain on
mountainous areas in Taiwan’s northeast, prompting the
government to warn of potentially deadly landslides and flash
floods.

Around 1,500 people were evacuated from villages in the
mountains, and 1.3 million homes were without electricity. The
most serious outages were in the central and southern areas.

Haitang was expected to weaken, however, as it swept across
the island toward mainland China. Taipei city officials said
business was likely to resume in the capital on Tuesday.

“Due to Taiwan’s geographic make-up, most strong typhoons
generally weaken quickly after making landfall,” Kathy Lin, a
deputy-director at the Central Weather Bureau, told Reuters.

“So while it is still heading north-northwest, its speed
has slowed and it is weakening,” the forecaster said.

CHINA BRACES

In normally bustling Taipei, the streets were clear of
traffic as most residents in the capital hunkered down in their
homes to ride out the first typhoon to make landfall this year.

Howling winds uprooted trees, street signs and billboards
lay toppled on the roads, and sandbags lined the doors of shops
and homes. International and domestic flights were suspended,
railways stopped running and seaports stopped loading.

Taiwan’s four refineries, owned by Chinese Petroleum Corp.
and private Formosa Petrochemical Corp, were operating
normally.

“There were strong gusts of wind every five or six minutes,
forcing me to stop my scooter when I was riding to work,” said
David Lin, a security guard in Taipei. “Every time I heard a
loud noise I was afraid I would be hit by debris,” he said.

Haitang made landfall at around 2:50 p.m. (0650 GMT) on the
northeast coast and was churning toward Taipei, Taiwan’s
political and financial center and home to the world’s tallest
building, the 508-meter (1,667-foot) tall Taipei 101.

The weather bureau said Haitang was traveling at 11 km/h
and expected to leave Taiwan on Tuesday, but heavy rains may
still be pounding the island on Wednesday.

Footage from TVBS cable station showed streets flooded with
muddy water in some eastern and northeastern parts of the
island, and damaged storefronts in the central city of
Taichung.

In 2001, one of Taiwan’s deadliest years for storms,
Typhoon Toraji killed 200 people. A few months later, Typhoon
Nari caused Taipei’s worst flooding on record and killed 100.

In China, the Zhejiang city of Wenzhou — a manufacturing
hub that churns out everything from shoes to cigarette lighters
– evacuated 77,000 people as meteorologists predicted heavy
rain in the area by Monday night, the official Xinhua news
agency said.

In the southeastern province of Fujian, fishing boats were
recalled, travel services were suspended and coastal hotels
were banned from receiving guests, Xinhua said.

Typhoons gather strength from warm sea waters and tend to
dissipate after making landfall. They hit Taiwan, Japan, the
Philippines, Hong Kong and southern China frequently during a
season that starts in early summer and lasts until late autumn.

(Additional reporting by Tiffany Wu and in Beijing by
Lindsay Beck)