This is double-edged news. Typhoon Krathon made landfall this Thursday in the middle of the day, in Taiwan, weakened compared to what was initially feared.
The American Navy, responsible for monitoring this type of phenomenon for this region of the world, reports a weakening of the meteorological monster over a period of 6 hours. Krathon, originally equivalent to a category 4 out of 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale in force in the North Atlantic, now only has a power equivalent to a category 1 out of 4. The average wind, measured for one minute at a height of 10 m, was 125 km/h at the time of impact with gusts of more than 160 km/h.
The downside is that Krathon is also slower to move than expected. This gives it all the more time to sweep across the island and wear down the structures due to the wind. Above all, it can dump torrential rains on the Asian island. However, typhoons, hurricanes and other cyclones, which are all the same thing with a different name depending on the region of the world, cause more deaths due to flooding than because of the force of the winds.
Krathon made landfall in southwest Taiwan, some areas of which are among the most populated in this country of nearly 25 million inhabitants. The city of Kaohsiung, inhabited by nearly 3 million people, was notably crossed by the eye of the typhoon. The eye is a zone of calm. But its entrance and exit are the places in a hurricane where the winds blow the strongest.
At least two dead
Schools and offices on the island have remained closed since Wednesday and residents of the port city of Kaohsiung, in the south of the island, had been urged to take shelter. The authorities have recorded two deaths, two missing and more than 100 injured, reports Agence France Presse (AFP). The typhoon also caused temporary power cuts to nearly 55,000 homes, according to authorities.
Krathon will move towards the center of the island until Friday before potentially turning towards the west. Initially he was supposed to cross Taiwan to the North. In any case it will have continued to lose intensity and could become nothing more than a storm, or even a depression when it leaves Taiwan.
Tropical storms are common in Taiwan from July to October. A recent study concluded that they are forming closer to shore, gaining intensity more quickly and persisting longer after making landfall due to climate change.
