Asia

Home page

Asia

Super Typhoon Meranti targets Taiwan, mainland China

14 September 2016 05:41 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Hundreds of people have been evacuated in southern Taiwan as the island braces for the impact of the strongest storm of the year, APA reports quoting the official CNN.

Super Typhoon Meranti is barreling down on Taiwan, bringing wind speeds of up to 230 miles per hour (370 kph) and torrential rains.

Schools and offices across the south of the island haveclosed and dozens of flights have been canceled.

As of 7 a.m. local time Wednesday morning, around 1,500 people had been evacuated from the affected areas, Li Wei-sen, of the Taiwan Central Emergency Operating Center, told CNN.

Almost 4,000 military and police personnel have been deployed to the region to prepare for potential future evacuations, but he said authorities are not expecting major damage or destruction.

Super typhoon

After a period of rapid intensification Monday and Tuesday, which saw Meranti grow from a Category 1 equivalent storm to that of a top-scale Category 5 in only 24 hours, the super typhoon has maintained winds of 190 mph (305 kph) for nearly 24 hours.

With current gusts of up to 230 mph (370 kph), Meranti is the strongest typhoon since Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines in 2013 and is the strongest storm to come this close to Taiwan since 1959.

The storm is nearing the southern tip of Taiwan, and though its eye may pass a few miles south of the island, dangerous typhoon-force winds greater than 74 mph (120 kph) extend nearly 80 miles (125 km), and will cover much of Southern Taiwan.

From there the storm will track through toward the northwest and move into mainland China.