Typhoon Kong-rey hits Taiwan’s east coast, leaving 2 dead, hundreds injured
TAIPEI, Taiwan — A powerful typhoon made landfall in Taiwan on Thursday, killing two people and bringing high winds and floods to much of the island’s east coast and northern areas after barreling past the northern Philippines.
Flights and train service were suspended in Taiwan and 8,600 people moved to shelters.
Typhoon Kong-rey was blowing at 114 miles per hour with gusts of up to 141 mph as it moved over the eastern county of Taitung. Parts of Yilan and Hualien counties were inundated by heavy rain, but many farmers in the largely rural areas had already brought in their crops in anticipation of damage from the storm.
Kong-rey’s winds weakened to 89 mph as of Thursday night, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration, and the center of the storm moved off the main island. It is expected to move northeast and will hit Taiwan’s outlying islands.
Typhoon Krathon, packing maximum sustained winds of 78 mph with gusts of 101 mph,was forecast to weaken into a tropical depression before it reaches the capital, Taipei.
Taiwan authorities reported two dead and 205 injuries from the storm as of Thursday afternoon. One of the deaths occurred when a tree fell on a vehicle. Taipei police reported that another person was killed when an electricity pole fell over, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
Officials also said they were trying to contact a pair of Czech tourists who had been hiking in Hualien’s Tarako National Park, famed for its steep cliffs and mountain trails. Other travelers were advised to stay where they were.
The capital, Taipei, was largely shut down as it was hit by high winds and heavy rains. Offices and schools across the island were closed. Off the north coast, a tugboat was dispatched to tow a Chinese-registered freighter that floundered and had been abandoned by its crew amid heavy seas.
Earlier Thursday, the typhoon’s eye blew about 68 miles east of the northernmost Philippine province of Batanes, a cluster of islands and islets of about 19,000 people. Villagers in northern Philippine provinces evacuated to shelters on Wednesday.
The strongest typhoon to hit Shanghai since 1949 has flooded roads with water and broken tree branches and knocked out power to some homes.
The Philippines weather agency had warned the the storm could blow away roofs, shatter windows and wreak extensive damage to farmland, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
“It’s so, so powerful and we haven’t seen the extent of the damage yet because the wind outside is still so strong,” Batanes Governor Marilou Cayco told the Associated Press by cellphone before the line was cut off.
Kong-rey, the 12th weather disturbance to hit the Philippine archipelago this year, lashed the Southeast Asian nation while it’s still recovering from a storm last week that left 179 dead and missing. Hundreds of thousands of people are still in emergency shelters from Tropical Storm Trami.
China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and regularly sends planes and warships around the island, largely suspended its patrols, with just eight planes detected around the island between Wednesday and Thursday, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry.
Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed from Manila, Philippines.
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