Taiwan warns of storm surge from powerful Typhoon Krathon, mobilises troops
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People buying food at a Taipei supermarket ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Krathon on Sept 30.
PHOTO: REUTERS
TAIPEI – Taiwan mobilised nearly 40,000 troops on Oct 1 to be on standby for rescue efforts as powerful t yphoon Krathon
As the typhoon approached, helicopters lifted to safety 19 sailors forced to abandon ship when it took on water.
Some flights were cancelled, a rail line was closed and in the major port city of Kaohsiung, shops and restaurants shut and streets were mostly deserted.
Taiwan regularly gets hit by typhoons, but they generally land along the mountainous and sparsely populated east coast facing the Pacific, but this one will make landfall on the island’s flat western plain.
Krathon is forecast to hit the major port city of Kaohsiung on Oct 2 morning, then work its way across the centre of Taiwan heading north-east and cross out into the East China Sea, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.
Kaohsiung, home to some 2.7 million people, declared a holiday and told people to stay at home as Krathon – labelled a super typhoon by the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Centre – approached and is expected to hit as a Category 4 storm according to Tropical Storm Risk.
CWA forecaster Li Meng-hsiang said the storm has reached its maximum intensity and could weaken slightly as it moves closer to Taiwan, warning of gusts of more than 150kmh for the southwest.
“The storm surge might bring tides inland,” the forecaster added. “If it’s raining heavily it will make it difficult to discharge waters and as a result coastal areas will be subject to flooding.”
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai told a disaster management meeting that the storm was “no less powerful” than 1977’s Typhoon Thelma, which killed 37 people and devastated the city.
“After the typhoon, the whole of Kaohsiung was without water and electricity, just like a war,” Mr Chen said, recalling the decades-ago destruction. “As much as possible, limit going out.”
Residents must not go to the coast, mountains or near rivers and avoid going outside unless necessary, the city government cited him as saying.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said it had put more than 38,000 troops on standby, as Kaohsiung residents made their own preparations.
“It’s going to strike us directly. We must be fully prepared,” said fisherman Chen Ming-huang, as he tightened ropes on his boat at Kaohsiung Harbour. “In the worst case scenario, the ropes might snap and my boat could drift away.”
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia and which has a large factory in neighbouring Tainan, said it had activated routine typhoon preparations and did not expect a significant impact to its operations.
Search for sailors
Off the south-east coast, Taiwanese rescue helicopters lifted to safety 19 sailors from a listing cargo vessel travelling from China to Singapore, the government said. The sailors were taken to shelter on Taiwan’s remote Orchid Island.
The Transport Ministry said 88 domestic flights and 24 international ones had been cancelled, with boats to outlying islands also stopped. It added that all domestic flights – 234 in total – would stop on Oct 2.
The rail line connecting southern to eastern Taiwan was closed, though the north-south high speed line was operating as normal, albeit with enhanced safety checks for wind and debris.
In Kaohsiung, most shops and restaurants pulled down their doors and shutters, and traditional wet markets shut with streets mostly deserted.
At a building in Siaogang district, home to the city’s airport, residents practised how to rapidly set up metal barriers to stop water flooding into the underground parking lot.
“We will have only a few minutes to react if the flooding is coming,” said the deputy head of the building’s residents’ committee.
Ms Chen Mei-ling, who lives near the harbour, said in past typhoons high tides reached just a few metres from her house’s main door and she had made preparations.
“We’ve got torches and emergency food supplies,” she said. “It’s a strong typhoon and we are worried.” REUTERS
