Typhoon Megi left four people dead and 268 injured, while 11,559 people had been evacuated from disaster-prone areas as of 7pm yesterday, the Central Emergency Operations Center said.
The center of Megi made landfall near Hualien City at about 2pm yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.
By 9:30pm, the typhoon’s eye was hovering over Penghu in the Taiwan Strait, moving west-southwest at 20kph, with a radius of 250km.
Photo: Tang Shih-ming, Taipei Times
The typhoon was packing gusts of up to 180kph, the bureau said.
Wind speed in Yilan County’s Suao (蘇澳) reached level 17 on the Beaufort scale before Megi made landfall, bureau forecaster Luo Ya-ying (羅雅尹) said.
Wind speed in Yilan City and Hualien County reached level 15 and level 14 respectively, Luo said, adding that wind speed reached level 15 in Taichung’s Wuci District (梧棲) and level 14 in Taoyuan’s Sinwu District (新屋).
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Wind speed in Taipei reached level 13, with sustained winds that measured between level 10 and level 12, she added.
Strong winds brought by the typhoon caused a tour bus carrying 31 people to topple sideways on a northbound lane of National Freeway No. 3 near the Changhua Interchange, injuring eight passengers, the Directorate-General of Highways said.
Twenty-nine passengers on the bus were Japanese tourists who arrived in Taiwan on Sunday and were scheduled to return to Japan today, the Tourism Bureau said.
One of the passengers sustained significant injuries and was under observation in an intensive care unit, the Tourism Bureau said.
Another tourist sustained multiple fractures, while the other six sustained minor injuries, the Tourism Bureau said, adding that Taipei-based New Sunshine Travel Service Co (陽達旅行社), which organized the tour, had found accommodations for the rest of the tourists in Taichung’s Plaza International Hotel.
Part of scaffolding around the Le Meridien Taichung hotel collapsed due to the strong wind, injuring three pedestrians on the ground.
At press time last night, information from the center showed that more than 5,600 mobile phone base stations had been damaged.
Taiwan Power Co (台電) said that about 2 million households were without power as of 7pm.
The typhoon also disrupted the nation’s air traffic, ground transportation system and shipping services.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration said that 271 domestic flights and 446 international flights were canceled yesterday, while 155 flights were delayed.
Several airlines announced that some flights that were scheduled to depart yesterday would instead leave today.
Travelers are advised to contact airlines directly before leaving for airports.
Both Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (台灣高鐵) and the Taiwan Railways Administration canceled services yesterday.
The National Freeway Bureau also banned large passenger buses from accessing the Wugu-Yangmei Overpass after 12pm yesterday, as the winds in the area reached 50kph.
Forty-four people were stranded on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) as ferries between the island and Taiwan proper were canceled.
The CWB said Megi weakened as its structure was compromised by Taiwan’s terrain, adding that it would change structure before entering the Taiwan Strait.
The typhoon was expected to move toward Kinmen before heading toward China’s Fujian Province, the CWB said.
Despite weakening, the typhoon is expected to cause heavy rainfall across the nation until this afternoon, when it was forecast to landfall in China.
As of 6pm yesterday, Taipingshan (太平山) in Yilan County had the highest accumulated rainfall with 1,015mm, followed by Niaozuishan (鳥嘴山) in Hsinchu County and Taoshan (桃山) in Taichung, which had accumulated more than 620mm of rainfall.
At press time last night, Penghu, Kinmen, Yunlin, Chiayi, Changhua, Yilan and Pingtung counties, as well as Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, had declared today a typhoon day, canceling school and work.
Taitung canceled work and school today in three villages in mountainous areas.
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