Three dead as Typhoon Gaemi hits Taiwan

Typhoon Gaemi made landfall on Taiwan’s east coast, killing three people and injuring hundreds more, officials said.

Gaemi, which made landfall near Hualien city with winds of about 240km/h (150mph), is said to be the strongest storm to hit the island in eight years.

The storm forced officials to cancel some of the island’s biggest annual military exercises, along with most domestic flights and more than 200 international flights.

Before hitting Taiwan, Gaemi also caused heavy rains in large areas of the Philippines, killing eight people.

Authorities are warning that one of the biggest threats is the storm’s potential to trigger landslides and flash floods, especially on mountain slopes destabilized by big earthquake in april.

One of the three people killed in Taiwan was a driver hit by a falling tree, authorities said. Another was crushed by an excavator when it overturned.

More than 8,000 people across the island have been temporarily evacuated by local authorities, according to reports.

Typhoon Gaemi made landfall in Taiwan around midnight on Wednesday (16:00 GMT), on the northeastern coast near Yilan county.

On Wednesday, the government declared a typhoon day, suspending work and classes across the island, except for the Kinmen archipelago.

Schools and offices remained closed on Thursday, while flights to and from Taiwan were also canceled.

The storm was initially expected to make landfall north, but mountains in northern Taiwan redirected the storm south toward the city of Hualien.

The storm is expected to weaken as it passes over the mountains of Taiwan before entering the Taiwan Strait towards China.

A second typhoon is expected to make landfall in southeastern China’s Fujian province later on Thursday. The storm is expected to bring 300mm of rain to the region, which has been hit by persistent flooding and heavy rain.

Some railway operators in China have also suspended operations.

Despite the strong winds, officials say the main threat from Gaemi is the huge amount of moisture it carries.

The island’s central weather administration has issued a land warning for all of Taiwan.

Taiwanese authorities warned that one to two metres of rain could fall in the island’s central and southern mountains over the next 24 hours.

In the capital Taipei, supermarket shelves were empty on Tuesday evening as people stocked up on goods as prices were expected to rise after the typhoon passed.

The threat of the typhoon also forced the government to partially cancel a planned week-long Hang Kuang military exercise, which it has repeatedly claimed was “the most realistic exercise ever”.

Although it did not make landfall in the Philippines, Gaemi exacerbated the southwest monsoon and brought heavy rains to the capital region and northern provinces of the country on Wednesday. Work and classes were halted there while stock and foreign exchange trading was suspended.

Metro Manila, home to nearly 15 million people, has been plunged into disaster as rivers and streams overflowed.

Footage circulating on social media showed small cars floating in chest-deep water and passengers trapped on the roofs of submerged buses.

The state weather agency said rain, which is common at this time of year, could last through Thursday.