Deadly Typhoon Koinu heads toward southern China and Hong Kong after battering Taiwan
Deadly Typhoon Koinu is heading towards southern China and Hong Kong this weekend after battering Taiwan with record wind gusts and injuring hundreds of people.
The typhoon is set to bring heavy rain along the coasts of Guangdong and neighbouring Fujian province in the next three days, China’s National Meteorological Centre (NMC) said.
Typhoon Koinu, which means “puppy” in Japanese, carried the world’s third most powerful wind gust ever recorded when it battered Taiwan, causing widespread damage.
One person was killed and almost 400 people were injured in rainfall and disruption caused by the typhoon on Wednesday and Thursday.
The typhoon devastated remote Orchid Island off the east coast, toppled and sunk boats, severely damaged two schools and left many without power.
Koinu slowed down from the 252 kph (156mph) wind speeds recorded on Thursday in Taiwan and was expected to weaken into a strong tropical storm from late on Friday and continue to grow weaker as it heads west along China’s southern coast, NMC said.
It was spotted travelling around 144 kph (89 mph) off the coast of the southern Guangdong city of Shanwei as of 8am on Friday.
The NMC warned that rainfall in Guangdong could reach more than 300 millimetres as it issued a yellow alert for strong winds, the third highest in a four-coloured warning system.
China’s Guangdong province has suspended dozens of ferry routes since late Thursday and the NMC warned tourists to stay away from beach resorts on the last day of a week-long national holiday on Friday.
In Taiwan, aid and repair works continue as the government and air force helicopters flew in engineers to restore electricity and telecommunications on Friday. Civilian flights, however, still remain suspended.
On Thursday, waves of up to seven metres were reported, and videos online show significant damage to houses and shopfronts along coastal areas.
“The situation is very bad, roads broken, cannot pump fuel and cannot buy anything from the convenience store, no food stocks and water. So everyone is collecting rain water for cooking,” Orchid Island restaurant owner Judy Chiu told Reuters.
The government was struggling to send the boats with aid supplies to the remote Orchid Island. Officials say the first aid may not arrive until Saturday morning.
Koinu is the second typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan this year, after Haikui hit the island in September, prompting landslides, mass evacuations and dozens of injuries. No typhoon had directly hit Taiwan for four years, despite its location in an active tropical storm zone.
Additional reporting by agencies
