President Lai Ching-te warned on Tuesday that the typhoon was likely to cause “catastrophic damage” and urged the public to be “particularly vigilant” due to its relatively rare route as the typhoon was forecast to exit from the island’s east coast.
All domestic flights and ferry services were cancelled on Wednesday, and some airlines suspended flights from Taiwan to Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and South Korea.
Nearly 40,000 troops were on standby for relief efforts, the defence ministry said.
Across Taiwan, 35 typhoon-related injuries had been reported as of late Tuesday, authorities said without providing details.
In Kaohsiung, authorities have started distributing sandbags and clearing storm drains to avoid a repeat of the widespread flooding seen during Typhoon Gaemi in July.
Gaemi was the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in eight years, leaving at least 10 people dead and hundreds wounded.
