Taiwan ---Typhoon Fanapi

Typhoon Fanapi Cuts Power, Closes Airports, Forces Evacuations in Taiwan

By Weiyi Lim - Sep 19, 2010 2:35 PM GMT+0530

Typhoon Fanapi swept through Taiwan today with winds gusting as high as 180 kilometers (112 miles) per hour, downing electric lines, forcing evacuations and closing schools, offices, airports and ground transport.

Power outages struck 313,596 households on the island, the Ministry of Economic Affairs reported on its website, adding that electricity was restored at 140,000. Emergency workers evacuated 6,775 people from 11 counties prone to landslides, the Central Emergency Operations Center said.

Fanapi made landfall south of Hualien on Taiwan’s central east coast this morning, and is now 20 kilometers north of Tainan, heading west at 20 kilometers per hour, the Central Weather Bureau said on its website at 4:15 p.m.

President Ma Ying-jeou’s government mobilized more than 19,000 emergency workers as Fanapi approached, boosting precautions this year after Typhoon Morakot battered Taiwan for three days in August 2009, killing more than 600 people and causing at least NT$110 billion ($3.47 billion) of damage.

Ma, whose popularity dropped to a record low 29 percent in the wake of that destruction, stayed at the Central Emergency Operations Center yesterday, the government said.

Shangdewen, in Pingtung County, received an accumulated 619 millimeters (24.4 inches) of rain, the most reported, and further downpours were forecast, the bureau said. That compares with the single-day record of 1,415 millimeters Morakot dumped on Taiwan.

Evacuation areas included Kaohsiung and Chiayi counties, which were among the worst hit by Morakot last year. Schools and offices were closed today, the Central Personnel Administration said on its website.

Fanapi is weakening and slowing as it passes over the island heading for the mainland and is considered “medium- strength,” the weather center said. The eye of the typhoon may cross into the Taiwan Strait by 8 p.m., it said.

China yesterday issued its highest alert, warning that Fanapi may be the strongest storm to strike the country this year, according to a statement posted on the website of the National Meteorological Center. The typhoon may make landfall in southern China tonight or tomorrow morning, the center said.

Fanapi forced the cancellation of 201 domestic and 73 international flights, according to an e-mailed statement from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. The High Speed Rail Corp. stopped all train service, according to the statement, and traffic on 33 roads was blocked as of 4 p.m. (bloomberg)