TAIPEI: Typhoon Danas lashed southern Taiwan with record winds and strong rain early on Monday (Jul 7), killing two people and injuring more than 330 in a rare hit to the island’s densely populated west coast, where businesses and schools were shut.
Taiwan is regularly struck by typhoons but they generally land along the mountainous and sparsely populated east coast facing the Pacific.
Typhoon Danas, at one point listed by Taiwan’s weather authority at the second-strongest level, headed north towards the Taiwan Strait after making landfall along its southwestern coast late on Sunday.
It has greatly weakened since and was forecast to hit eastern China later this week.
“The typhoon track is rare … the whole of Taiwan will be affected by the wind and rain one after another,” President Lai Ching-te said in a post on Facebook, urging citizens to make preparations.
Power to more than half a million homes was cut and over 300 domestic and international flights were cancelled, government data showed. The north-south high-speed rail line scaled back services.
The National Fire Agency said one person was killed by a falling tree while driving and another died after their respirator malfunctioned due to a power cut.
Record winds of around 220km per hour were recorded in the southwestern county of Yunlin, while more than 700 trees and street signs were blown over across western cities and towns, government data showed.
There was no major report of damage in the Tainan Science Park that houses tech giants such as TSMC.
Maritime officials in eastern China’s Zhejiang province raised their emergency response to the second-highest level on Monday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
As of 10am, 121 passenger vessels and 64 ferry routes had been suspended across the province, CCTV reported. Authorities also halted 181 construction projects, including wind farms, as a precaution.
Danas is expected to gradually approach the coastal areas between Zhejiang’s city of Taizhou and Fuzhou city in neighbouring Fujian province, according to the China Meteorological Administration.
The typhoon is forecast to make landfall along the stretch late on Tuesday.
