Taipei, Oct 31 (EFE).- Taiwan woke up Thursday with schools, offices and financial markets closed due to the proximity of Typhoon Kong-rey, which could make landfall this afternoon on the east coast of the island and whose winds exceed 226kmph.
Huge waves batter a coastal area as Typhoon Kong-Rey moves quickly toward Taiwan, at a coastal area in Hualien, Taiwan, 31 October 2024. EFE-EPA/DANIEL CENG
Taiwan’s weather agency issued a typhoon alert for land and sea throughout the island, including the outlying archipelagos of Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu, and has issued warnings for “extremely torrential rain” in the mountainous areas of Taichung, Hualien and Yilan.
Debris are seen at a coastal area following powerful winds, as Typhoon Kong-Rey moves quickly toward Taiwan, at a coastal area in Hualien, Taiwan, 31 October 2024. EFE-EPA/DANIEL CENG
With a radius of approximately 320 kilometers, the storm is the largest to threaten the island since Typhoon Herb, which between July 1996 and August 1996 caused more than 800 deaths during its passage through Taiwan, China and the Japanese archipelago of the Ryukyus.
At 10:15am local time (02:15 GMT), Kong-rey, which had been a “super typhoon” for several hours on Wednesday, was about 88 kilometers southeast of the southeastern city of Taitung, and moving northwest to north at a speed of between 19kmph and 28kmph, according to the agency’s observations.
The latest available measurement shows the storm was packing sustained winds of 183.6kmph at its center and gusts of up to 226.8kmph.
In a morning press conference, agency forecaster Chu Mei-lin said the storm “will continue to move rapidly” during the next few hours and will make landfall on the eastern coast of the island “around noon or afternoon,” reaching the Taiwan Strait at night.
The expert also spoke of possibly “destructive winds” in many parts of the archipelago: on Orchid Island, off the coast of Taitung, winds of Level 17, the highest on the Beaufort Scale, were experienced, and one of these gusts damaged the measuring instruments of the local meteorological station.
On the level of precipitation, the typhoon has so far left 490 millimeters of rain in the municipality of Datong, 330 millimeters in the mountainous district of Heping and another 256.5 millimeters in the town of Jianshi.
In this context, the authorities have chosen to suspend classes and office work due to the proximity of the storm, which has also led to the cancellation of all domestic flights scheduled for Thursday and the reduction of the high-speed train service.
Taiwan is particularly sensitive to natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons: earlier this month, Typhoon Krathon left at least four dead, more than 700 injured and caused millions in losses to the island’s agricultural sector. EFE
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