Taiwan evacuated more than 3,000 residents from high-risk areas and shut down schools and offices on Tuesday as tropical storm Fung-wong approached, after leaving at least 25 people dead and displacing over 1.4 million in the Philippines.
Once classified as a typhoon, Fung-wong has weakened as it heads toward Taiwan and is expected to make landfall Wednesday afternoon or evening near the southwestern port city of Kaohsiung.
According to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 108 kilometers (67 miles) per hour and gusts reaching 137 kph (85 mph) as of Tuesday morning. It is forecast to sweep across the island and move out from the northeastern coast by late Wednesday or early Thursday.
Authorities have evacuated more than 3,300 people from four counties and cities, including the eastern township of Guangfu, where a typhoon-triggered barrier lake overflowed in September, killing 18 people.
Schools and offices were closed on Tuesday in Hualien and Yilan counties, while land warnings were issued for southern and southwestern regions, including Kaohsiung, Pingtung, Tainan, and Taitung.
Meanwhile, China activated emergency typhoon measures for its southeastern provinces—Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Hainan—as the storm continues to move northward.
Fung-wong first struck the northeastern coast of the Philippines on Sunday as a super typhoon, packing winds of up to 185 kph (115 mph) and gusts reaching 230 kph (143 mph). The massive storm, spanning about 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles), triggered flash floods and landslides that killed at least 18 people across northern provinces.
More than a million people remain displaced in the Philippines, including some 803,000 sheltering in over 11,000 evacuation centers in northern Luzon, said Office of Civil Defense deputy director Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV.
Typhoon Fung-wong exits Philippines, leaving 8 dead and 1.4 million displaced
The fatalities included 19 who died in landslides across the mountainous Cordillera region, known for its vulnerability to mudslides during the rainy season. Two people remain missing there, officials said.
Other victims were killed in flash floods, by exposed electrical wires, or in a house collapse, while at least 29 people were reported injured.
Among the dead were three children whose homes were buried in separate landslides in Nueva Vizcaya province, and two villagers killed in Kalinga province, officials added.
“It’s not a mass casualty in one place,” Alejandro said Tuesday. “Several people were killed in separate landslides.”
Both Taiwan and the Philippines are hit by multiple typhoons and storms each year and lie in one of the world’s most disaster-prone regions, frequently exposed to earthquakes and extreme weather.
Source: AP