TAIPAI // Taiwan issued a warning to ships and people working along coastlines to brace for wind and waves as Typhoon Soudelor barrels westward toward the island and eastern China.
Moving west-northwest at 23 kilometres per hour, Soudelor is expected to strengthen and expand as it approaches Taiwan’s shores, the island’s Central Weather Bureau said in its warning on Thursday.
As of late Wednesday, Soudelor was 1,235 kilometres east of Philippine’s northern Calayan island, with winds of 195 kph per hour and gusts of up to 230 kph.
The storm is the fourth typhoon this year to trigger sea or land warnings in Taiwan. Heavy rains may douse the island on Friday and Saturday, the Taipei-based United Daily News reported.
Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways, which operates 127 Taiwan flights each week, said operations remain normal while it monitors Soudelor’s approach.
In July, the approach of Typhoon Chan-hom prompted Taiwan to close its financial markets as well as schools and offices for one day.
Soudelor has already ravaged islands in the Pacific, leaving residents Saipan, the most populated island in US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, facing up to a month without power and water.
The National Weather Service said the typhoon’s eye directly hit Saipan late on Sunday night, with wind gusts reaching 169 kph. It left about 484 island residents in emergency shelters because of damage to their homes.
It could take three weeks to a month to restore power, water and wastewater systems, the island’s Commonwealth Utilities Corp
Without electricity to pump water, residents in certain areas have had to fill bottles from lorry deliveries, the utilities company reported.
Meanwhile in the Philippines, seven people were killed and two are missing in flash floods.
Filipino officials from the regional Office of Civil Defence said the dead in southern Bukidnon province’s Valencia City included a 6-month-old girl and three other children aged between six to nine. They drowned on Tuesday, but their bodies were retrieved on Wednesday.
Esperanza Cayanan, a weather bureau official, warned of possible landslides after two weeks of heavy rain in the central and southern regions.
She said the south-west monsoon will be enhanced by Soudelor, which will likely trigger strong to moderate rains.
Soudelor is approaching the Philippines, but is not expected to make landfall.
* Agencies