Tokyo: Typhoon Chan-hom lashed Japan’s Okinawa island chain yesterday as it pushed towards Taiwan and onto China, leaving more than 20 people injured.
Thousands were evacuated from eastern China in preparation for the storm which left five dead in the Philippines earlier in the week after heavy rains.
The powerful typhoon -- categorised as a “super typhoon” by some regional weather bureaus -- was moving northwest of Miyako island of the Okinawan island chain yesterday afternoon, with recorded gusts of 234 kilometres (145 miles) per hour, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The typhoon is expected to keep moving northward, bringing rainstorms and waves as high as 12 metres (40 feet) at sea, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported.
As trees were uprooted and buildings battered at least 23 people were injured and 180 evacuated across the area, the Tokyo Broadcasting System broadcaster reported.
The meteorological agency warned that strong winds and high waves would continue to pound the island chain where 42,000 households have been left without power.
The storm left five dead in the Philippines, including three children, as it swept through from last Tuesday with flooding almost a metre (three feet) deep in the northern island of Luzon and 1,500 people displaced.
Chan-hom began to bear down on Taiwan yesterday, where the weather bureau categorised it as a “severe typhoon”.
Four people have been injured so far, all of them by falling trees.
Taiwan’s stock market was closed and schools and offices shut as heavy rainfall and fierce winds battered the north.
Troops have been deployed to northeastern areas and fishing boats called back to ports.
Mountain communities were particularly at risk with warnings over landslides, authorities said. More than 1,000 villagers were evacuated from the remote township of Chien-shih in Hsinchu county which had been deluged with 300 mm (12 inches) of rain by yesterday afternoon.
“The speed of winds and the amount of rainfall in the north and northeast have been on the rise in the past few hours,” Taiwan’s weather bureau said.
A number of flights in and out of Okinawa and northern Taiwan have been cancelled.
China’s National Meteorological Center issued a red alert, the highest, yesterday morning for Chan-Hom, according to state news agency Xinhua.
The storm is due to pass northern Taiwan overnight before making landfall on the east coast of mainland China.
Nearly 20,000 people have been evacuated from the province of Zhejiang and 20,000 fishing vessels returned to harbour for shelter, state news agency Xinhua reported, after waves reached up to 10 metres high off the coast.
“The upcoming typhoon seems very powerful. We have sealed all our windows and doors and have stored food,” said Liu Yimin, a villager in coastal Huagang village, according to Xinhua.
People on coastal fishing farms in Fujian province were asked to move out Yesterday morning.
Chan-hom was expected to hit eastern China’s coastline early today and is forecast to change course and head northeast toward Shanghai and the Korean peninsula.
Hot on the heels of Chan-hom, Typhoon Nangka was swelling over the Pacific Ocean yesterday and is expected to travel northwest towards Japan’s Ryukyu Islands in the coming days. The Japan Meteorological Agency described the storm as “very strong”. Hong Kong braced last Thursday for severe tropical storm Linfa but it weakened after making landfall on the coast of the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. AFP
