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Taiwan braces for Typhoon Lekima

Even as it continued cleaning up from last week's deadly Typhoon Nari, Taiwan was bracing for another storm yesterday.

Typhoon Lekima was moving in a westerly direction at 5km per hour as of press time last night, approaching Hengchun township (恆春) in Pingtung County.

The Central Weather Bureau issued both land and sea warnings at 8pm yesterday for the storm, which was continuing to gain in strength.

Lekima was moving very slowly toward Taiwan, suggesting its impact could last for days -- much like killer Typhoon Nari.

Weather forecasters said the storm could bring more torrential rain and strong winds to Taiwan and warned residents to be prepared for floods and mudslides.

At 8pm yesterday, Lekima was 160km south south-east of Oulanbi, the southern-most tip of Taiwan.

The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 120kph and gusts of up to 155kph.

The slow-moving Typhoon Nari hit Taiwan last week, leaving 93 dead and 10 people missing while causing more than NT$2.91 billion in agricultural losses.

Nari had hovered off the Taiwan coast for more than a week, showering record amounts of rain which turned roads in Taipei into torrents of water that rose as high as second-story windows in the capital's worst flooding in memory.

The government was forced to launch a massive clean-up in the typhoon's wake, mobilizing thousands of soldiers and workers to pump floodwaters out of subway stations and apartment basements and to remove more than 200,000 tonnes of sodden furniture and garbage from the streets.

Meanwhile, a Taiwanese navy Perry Class frigate rescued 16 crew members early yesterday morning from a Singaporean freighter that had sunk in rough seas off southern Taiwan. The Delta-62 sank on Sunday about 160km west of Kaohsiung in high seas as Lekima approached Taiwan, port officials said yesterday.

The frigate picked up the Singaporean captain and 15 other seamen, who were in life rafts. A passing freighter rescued two others, officials said.

The cargo ship was sailing to Hong Kong and, with the exception of the captain, its entire crew came from the Philippines, they said.

Also yesterday, one man was killed and three others injured in a landslide triggered by the recent downpours.

The 65-year-old victim was buried alive when tonnes of rocks and mud swallowed his home in Keelung, the National Fire Administration said.

Three members of his family were injured in the disaster but managed to escape with their lives.
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