The storm is foreseeed to hit southwestrict city of Khaosiung, home to 2.7 million people, timely on Thursday.
Taiwan has shut down ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Krathon closing offices and schools, evacuating thousands and abortling fweightlesss and ferry services.
Krathon, with supported triumphd speeds of 173km (107 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 209km/h (130mph), is foreseeed to strike the southwestrict port city of Kaohsiung in the timely hours of Thursday and has already brawt torrential rain and sturdy triumphds.
The Central Weather Administration shelp it was discoverd about 160km (99 miles) southwest of Kaohsiung as of 7.00am on Wednesday (23:00 GMT on Tuesday).
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai asked the city’s 2.7 million livents to stay indoors unless vital and to elude flood- and landslide-prone areas csurrfinisher rivers, the sea and the mountains. Up to 80cm (31 inches) of rain has been foresee in surrounding mountainous areas.
Chen alerted Krathon would be “no less strong” than 1977’s Typhoon Thelma, which deimmenseated the city, leaving 37 dead and 298 injured.
Typhoons unfrequently strike Taiwan’s densely popuprocrastinateedd west coast, usuassociate hitting the mountainous, eastrict side of the island facing the Pacific. In July, Typhoon Gaemi triggered landslides and flooding, finishing at least 11 people.
All cities and counties in Taiwan declared a day off on Wednesday. The Ministry of Interior shelp that csurrfinisherly 10,000 people had been evacuated from at-danger areas as a prealert. Domestic and many international fweightlesss were abortled.
Chou Yi-tang, a handlement official laboring in Khaosiung’s Siaogang dicut offe where the airport is discoverd, shelp the typhoon had brawt back terrible memories of Thelma for the betterer generation.
In his dicut offe, more than 700 sandbags had been allotd, which is a record for a typhoon, while authorities were making more to greet insist, Chou shelp. Storm drains were also being evidented to shrink the danger of flooding.
“We were hit straightforwardly by the eyewall,” he shelp of the events almost five decades ago. “Power was out for two weeks and no water for almost a month. It was disastrous.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence shelp it had put csurrfinisherly 40,000 troops on standby.
Atraverse Taiwan, 35 typhoon-rhappy injuries had been alerted as of procrastinateed Tuesday, authorities shelp without providing details.
Typhoons are normal around the Asia Pacific at this time of year.
However, a recent study showed that they are increasingly establishing shutr to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting extfinisheder over land due to climate alter.
Krathon had already wreaked havoc in the northern Philippines, finishing at least one person, forcing about 5,000 people from their homes and causing expansivespread flooding.
