Typhoon Gaemi sinks freighter off Taiwan, barrels towards Chinese seaboard

[July 25, 2024]  By Ben Blanchard and Bernard Orr

TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) -Typhoon Gaemi swept through northern Taiwan on Thursday, killing three people, triggering flooding and sinking a freighter before barrelling west across the Taiwan Strait towards China where it is expected to dump more torrential rain.

Gaemi made landfall around midnight (1600 GMT Wednesday) on the northeastern coast of Taiwan in Yilan county. It is the strongest typhoon to hit the island in eight years and was packing gusts of up to 227 kph (141 mph) before weakening, according to the Central Weather Administration.

As of 17:00 p.m. (0900 GMT), Gaemi had crossed the Taiwan Strait and was looming over China's coastal Fujian province.

Gaemi would be the biggest typhoon to hit China's eastern seaboard this year, with its spiraling cloud-bands spanning most of the Western Pacific Ocean and fuelling severe weather from the Philippines to Japan's Okinawa islands.

In Taiwan, the storm cut power to around half a million households, though most are now back online, utility Taipower said.

Some parts of southern Taiwan are expected to have recorded accumulated rainfall of 2,200 mm (87 inches) since Tuesday.

The typhoon is expected to bring more rain across Taiwan in its wake, with offices and schools as well as the financial markets closed for a second day on Thursday.

Trains will be stopped until 3 p.m. (0700 GMT), with all domestic flights and 195 international flights cancelled for the day. The high speed train linking north and south Taiwan will re-open at 2 p.m. (0600 GMT).

Three people have died and 380 injured due to the typhoon, the government said. Taiwanese television stations showed pictures of flooded streets in cities and counties across the island.

Li Li-chuan, 55, saw the roof of her restaurant blow off in the northeastern Taiwanese city of Suao.

"I was frightened," she told Reuters. "It was the strongest in years. I was worried that the roof would hit other people."

Taiwan's fire department said a Tanzania-flagged freighter with nine Myanmar nationals on board had sunk off the coast of the southern port city of Kaohsiung and there had been no response from the crew. Search efforts were ongoing, it added.

The water level rises due to heavy rains in Meinong District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, July 25, 2024, in this picture obtained from social media. Chichen Fu/via REUTERS

CHINA NEXT

Chinese weather forecasters said Gaemi will pass through Fujian province later on Thursday and head inland, gradually moving northward with less intensity. But weather forecasters are expecting heavy rain in many areas as it tracks north.

Government officials have already prepared for heavy rain and flooding, raising advisories and warnings in the coastal provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang.

In Fujian, government officials have relocated about 150,000 people, mainly from coastal fishing communities, state media reported. As gale force winds picked up, officials in Zhoushan in Zhejiang suspended passenger waterway routes for up to three days.

Most flights were cancelled at airports in Fuzhou and Quanzhou in Fujian, and Wenzhou in Zhejiang, according to the VariFlight app.

Guangzhou rail officials suspended some trains that pass through typhoon-affected areas, according to CCTV.

Meanwhile, north China is experiencing heavy rain from summer storms around a separate weather system.

Some areas in Beijing experienced heavy rain and emergency plans were activated, with more than 25,000 people evacuated, according to Beijing Daily. Some train services were also suspended at the Beijing West Railway Station.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei, Yimou Lee in Suao, Bernard Orr, Ryan Woo and Joe Cash in Beijing; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Miral Fahmy)

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