Taiwan issued a land warning yesterday as the fifth typhoon of the year looked set to make landfall.
Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau issued the land warning for eastern Taiwan, advising residents to take precautions against heavy rains and strong winds.
State meteorologists said it already posed a threat to ships off the nation's southeast coast.
By 8pm, Typhoon Trami was 210km east-southeast of Oluanpi, the southernmost part of Taiwan, the Bureau said in a statement.
The typhoon, with maximum sustained winds of 65kph and gusts of up to 90kph, was moving north-northwest toward Taiwan at an average of 10kph.
The statement said the storm showed signs of gaining strength and taking a more northerly course.
Trami would be the third typhoon to hit Taiwan in less than a month after typhoons Chebi and Utor. Those two storms claimed hundreds of lives in Taiwan, China and the Philippines.
The Philippine weather bureau, which classified Trami as a storm after elevating it from a tropical depression, said it might not directly hit land in the Philippines.
However, Trami could induce monsoon rains in the western sections of Luzon and Visayas islands, including Metro Manila, the bureau said.
Last Wednesday, Typhoon Utor battered the rice and corn-growing island of Luzon with winds gusting up to 170kph before it moved into the South China Sea.
Utor, one of the most powerful storms to hit the Philippines in years, killed 128 people. Nearly 50 people are still missing and 157 others were injured.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council estimated damage to infrastructure and agriculture at 1.59 billion pesos (US$30 million).
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