Typhoon weakens after pounding Taiwan

TAIWAN: A typhoon that hit Taiwan over the weekend and forced the closure of the stock and foreign exchange markets on Monday, weakened as it left the island and brushed the Chinese coast, weather officials said.

Typhoon Jangmi, the season’s most powerful storm so far, reached Taiwan on Sunday afternoon, dumping 1,124 mm (44 inches) of rain on some parts of the island and packing winds of up to 209 kph (130 mph).

Rescue workers survey a landslide in Hsindian as Typhoon Jangmi hits Taipei yesterday. The typhoon that hit Taiwan over the weekend and forced the closure of the stock and foreign exchange markets on Monday, weakened as it left the island and brushed the Chinese coast, weather officials said. REUTERS

“Rains are continuing in all areas, and later the storm’s strength will weaken as outer winds will decrease,” Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said on its website (www.cwb.gov.tw).

The government advised workers and students around the island to stay home on Monday.

Weather forecasting service Tropical Storm Risk (www.tropicalstormrisk.com) said the storm, a category 1 typhoon on a 1-5 scale, would weaken on Monday after passing over Taiwan as at category 4. It was 80 km north of Taipei at 0030 GMT, the local weather bureau said.

The storm is moving north, likely to brush the southeast China coast en route toward Japan, Tropical Storm Risk said.

Chinese local authorities called vessels to harbour and issued warnings of possible floods and landslides, the Xinhua news agency said, and navigation was suspended across the Taiwan Strait. In the Zhejiang city of Wenzhou, about 110 tourists were stranded at a small island, Xinhua said.

In Taiwan, 156 domestic flights and some international flights were cancelled on Sunday. Most international flights were set to fly as usual on Monday.

Taiwan’s two major ports, in Kaohsiung and Keelung, reopened on Monday after closures a day earlier, and the island’s high-speed rail said it would resume service at noon.

Jangmi is the second major storm to strike Taiwan in the past two weeks, following slow-moving typhoon Sinlaku, which drenched the island and killed 12 people.

Typhoons regularly hit China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan from August until the end of the year, gathering strength from the warm waters of the Pacific of South China Sea before weakening over land.

Taipei, Monday, Reuters