2023-09-03 10:39:06
Mighty typhoon Haikui hit Taiwan earlier than expected. The cyclone hit land around 3:40 p.m. (local time, 9:40 a.m. CEST) in Taitung County in the east of the island, the weather service said on Sunday. He’s making “faster progress than expected”. The authorities had warned in advance of a “considerable threat” from the passage of the first typhoon in four years.
According to the weather service, the hurricane had a wind speed of 154 kilometers per hour, its gusts reached up to 190 kilometers per hour. In Taitung, uprooted trees whirled through the air as people crouched inside their homes, a journalist with the AFP news agency reported.
The authorities had previously announced the evacuation of around 4,000 people from the most vulnerable areas, and more than 200 domestic flights were canceled. Shops remained closed in most regions in the east and south of the island. Thousands of people were temporarily without power.
According to the weather service, “Haikui” is expected to cross the southern part of the island from east to west and continue across the Taiwan Strait toward mainland China on Monday morning. A typhoon last hit Taiwan in 2019, killing one person.
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