Typhoon Krathon swept across southern Taiwan on Thursday, September 3, accompanied by destructive winds, floods and mudslides that left at least two dead, while thousands of people were affected. These weather conditions complicated rescue operations at a hospital in Pingtung County where nine people died in a fire, according to authorities.
“Typhoon Krathon made landfall near Xiaogang district in Kaohsiung around 12:40 p.m. today” (0440 GMT) in the southern part of the island, the Taiwan Central Meteorological Administration (CWA) announced. It caused the death of at least two people and injured 219 people, firefighters said, reducing the number of people missing from two to one.
“I thought the end of the world had arrived”
“I thought the end of the world had arrived. I have never seen such a violent typhoon in ten years. It was so huge and so scary.”Liu Chih-hsiang, the 60-year-old owner of a moving company in Kaohsiung, told AFP. “Our neighbors’ metal roof was torn off”. Krathon previously devastated remote islands in the Philippines, killing one person, injuring eight and damaging more than 300 homes.
The Taiwanese were in lockdown two days before the arrival of the cyclonic episode, preceded by winds blowing at 126 km/h with gusts of up to 162 km/h and heavy rain. And schools and offices closed on Wednesday. The population of Kaohsiung, a port city of 2.7 million inhabitants, had been particularly warned. “There will be destructive winds in this area. Take shelter as soon as possible”had warned meteorologists in messages sent to cell phones on Thursday.
In the afternoon, people were asked to stay at home while the eye of the storm crossed the area, with its procession of heavy rain and lightning. Around 10,000 people were evacuated, according to a count Thursday by the Taiwanese Ministry of the Interior.
Canceled flights
A 70-year-old man who fell on Tuesday while pruning trees in Hualien County (east) died in hospital on Wednesday. Another man, aged 66 and hospitalized Monday near Taitung, in the Southeast, after a collision between his truck and a rock that fell on the road, died this Wednesday.
Krathon is seriously disrupting air traffic: this Thursday it led to the suspension of all domestic flights for the second consecutive day and the cancellation of around 240 international flights. “We have to stay there at least two or three days longer than planned”said a tourist from Malaysia at Kaohsiung airport, Chan Ka-woh.
The typhoon also caused temporary power cuts to nearly 55,000 homes, according to authorities. In Pingtung County, huge waves flooded coastal roads and caused them to collapse in two places. In New Taipei, in northern Taiwan, where rain and winds were intensifying, a mudslide toppled a huge rock onto a temple, whose roof was partially destroyed, the television channel reported local Set TV.
Tropical storms are common on this island from July to October. However, 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. In July, Typhoon Gaemi, the most powerful to hit Taiwan in eight years, triggered widespread flooding in Kaohsiung and left at least ten dead on the island.
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