In this photo released by Hualien County Fire Department, a blown roof destroyed by the wind of Typhoon Kong-rey lay across a road in Hualien County, eastern Taiwan, on Thursday (October 31, 2024).
| Photo Credit: AP

A powerful typhoon made landfall in Taiwan on Thursday (October 31, 2024), killing one person and bringing high winds and floods to much of the island’s east coast and northern areas, after barreling past the northern Philippines.

Flights and train service were suspended in Taiwan and 8,600 people moved to shelters.

Typhoon Kong-rey was blowing at 184 kilometers (114 miles) per hour with gusts of up to 227 kph (141 mph) as it moved over the eastern county of Taitung. Parts of Yilan and Hualien counties were inundated by heavy rain, but many farmers in the largely rural areas had already brought in their crops in anticipation of damage from the storm.

Taiwan authorities reported one death and 73 injuries from the storm as of Thursday (October 31, 2024) afternoon. The fatality occurred after a tree fell on a vehicle. Officials also said they were trying to contact a pair of Czech tourists who had been hiking in Hualien’s Tarako National Park, famed for its steep cliffs and mountain trails. Other travelers were advised to stay where they were.

The capital, Taipei, was largely shut down as it was hit by high winds and heavy rains. Offices and schools across the island were closed. Off the north coast, a tugboat was dispatched to tow away a Chinese-registered freighter that floundered and had been abandoned by its crew amid heavy seas.

Earlier Thursday (October 31, 2024), the typhoon’s eye blew about 110 kilometers (68 miles) east of the northernmost Philippine province of Batanes, a cluster of islands and islets of about 19,000 people. Villagers in northern Philippine provinces evacuated to shelters on Wednesday (October 30, 2024).

The Philippines weather agency had warned the the storm could blow away roofs and shatter windows and wreak extensive damage to farmland, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

“It’s so, so powerful and we haven’t seen the extent of the damage yet because the wind outside is still so strong,” Batanes Governor Marilou Cayco told The Associated Press by cellphone before the line was cut off.

Kong-rey, the 12th weather disturbance to hit the Philippine archipelago this year, lashed the Southeast Asian nation while it’s still recovering from a storm last week that left 179 dead and missing. Hundreds of thousands of people are still in emergency shelters from Tropical Storm Trami.

China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and regularly sends planes and warships around the island, largely suspended its patrols, with just eight planes detected around the island between Wednesday and Thursday, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry.

The Typhoon slammed into Taiwan on July 24 night, bringing Category 3 winds and heavy rain that triggered widespread flooding across the island.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

More than 27,000 people in Northeast China were evacuated and hundreds of factories were ordered to suspend production as Typhoon Gaemi brought heavy rains, the official Xinhua news agency reported on July 27.

Gaemi lashed towns on China’s coastal Fujian province on July 26 with heavy rains and strong winds as the most powerful storm to hit the country this year began its widely watched trek from the Southeastern coast into the populous interior.

The storm, which killed dozens as it swept through Taiwan and worsened seasonal rains in the Philippines, has affected almost 630,000 people in China’s Fujian province, with almost half of them being relocated, Xinhua has reported.

Also Read: Philippine tanker carrying 1.4 mn litres of oil capsizes off Manila

Heavy rains caused water levels to rise in 40 reservoirs across Liaoning province, the area is expected to experience torrential rain for the next few days, the report said.

Hundreds of chemical and mining companies across the province have suspended operations and nearby residents have been relocated to avoid flood risks, Xinhua said.

Residents of Manila occupy a basketball court as their homes were flooded by Typhoon Gaemi on July 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Authorities evacuated nearly 300,000 people and suspended public transport across eastern China on July 26, as Typhoon Gaemi brought torrential rains already responsible for five deaths in nearby Taiwan.

Gaemi was the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in eight years when it made landfall on July 25, flooding parts of the island’s second-biggest city.

It also exacerbated seasonal rains in the Philippines on its path to Taiwan, triggering flooding and landslides that killed 20 people.

A tanker carrying 1.4 million litres of oil sank off Manila on July 25, with authorities racing to contain a fuel spill.

It had weakened by the time it made landfall in China’s eastern Fujian province shortly before 8:00 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) on July 25, state media said.

China is enduring a summer of extreme weather, with heavy rains across the east and south coming as much of the north has sweltered under successive heatwaves.

The country is by far the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, which scientists say are driving climate change and making extreme weather more frequent and intense.

Heavy rains

Chinese authorities warned Typhoon Gaemi was bringing with it torrential rains that could cause flooding.

They have relocated more than 290,000 people in Fujian and shut down public transport, offices, schools and markets in some cities.

In neighbouring Zhejiang province, footage aired by state broadcaster CCTV Friday showed streets turned into rivers, trees strewn over roads and bikes struggling through knee-high waters.

The province’s Wenzhou city — home to nine million people — has issued its highest warning for rainstorms and evacuated nearly 7,000 people, CCTV said.

The typhoon will also bring heavy rainfall to central Jiangxi and Henan, state media said.

Guangdong, China’s most populous province, suspended some passenger train services on July 26 ahead of the typhoon’s expected arrival, CCTV said.

Citing the official China Weather Network, the broadcaster said the typhoon was moving northwestward at about 20 kilometres per hour.

It will “gradually weaken” as it makes its way to Jiangxi on July 26 in the late afternoon, it said.

No deaths or injuries have yet been reported.

The north of the country has this week also been hit by showers, with state media saying Friday that heavy rains had killed one and left three missing in the northwestern province of Gansu.

At a meeting of the country’s top leadership chaired by President Xi Jinping on July 25, officials urged local authorities to stay “highly vigilant and proactive” as the country entered peak flooding season.

In this photo taken on July 24, 2024 and released by Hualien Fire Department, a car is being hit by falling walls after Typhoon Gaemi made landfall in Hualien county, Taiwan.
| Photo Credit: AP

Typhoon Gaemi swept towards southern China on July 25 after killing at least two people in Taiwan, with nine sailors missing after their cargo ship sank in stormy weather.

The typhoon — the strongest to hit Taiwan in eight years — had already forced authorities on the island to shutter schools and offices, suspend the stock market and evacuate thousands of people.

On its path to Taiwan, Gaemi also exacerbated the seasonal rains in the Philippines, triggering flooding and landslides that killed six, and a tanker carrying 1.4 million litres of oil sank off Manila on July 24 with authorities racing to contain a spill.

“By Thursday morning, the typhoon had weakened and “the centre has moved out to sea” at around 4.20 a.m. (2020 GMT),” Taiwan’s weather authorities said.

Taiwan’s fire agency said it received a report on Thursday that a cargo ship had sunk off the island’s southern coast, forcing its nine Myanmar crew members to abandon ship in life jackets.

“They fell into the sea and were floating there,” said Hsiao Huan-chang, head of the fire agency, adding that rescuers contacted a nearby Taiwanese cargo ship to assist them.

Hsiao did not specify when the Tanzania-flagged ship sank, but said the rescue vessel arrived in the area at 8.35 a.m. (0035 GMT).

“(When the Taiwanese ship arrived) the visibility at the scene was very low and the winds were too strong,” he told reporters. “When the weather permits, we will immediately dispatch ships or helicopters to rescue but at the moment it is not possible.”

Another official at the agency told AFP after the briefing that the sailors were missing. Gaemi made landfall in Taiwan on July 24 with sustained wind speeds of 190 km (118 miles) per hour at its peak.

More than 200 people were injured and at least two were confirmed killed — a motorist in the southern Kaohsiung city was crushed by a tree, and a woman in eastern Hualien died after part of a building fell on her.

Several cities, including Taipei, announced a second consecutive day off, with schools, government offices and the stock market closed, while hundreds of domestic and international flights were cancelled.

In the south, Kaohsiung residents saw their streets transformed into rivers, with some households flooded with rainwater.

The storm is now tracking towards China’s Fujian province, which suspended all train services and put in place the second-highest flood warning alert level.

The national water resources ministry warned the day before that extremely heavy rains were expected to swell rivers and lakes in Fujian and the neighbouring province of Zhejiang.

In the Philippines, clean-up efforts were under way Thursday in the capital Manila as residents and business owners dumped soaked mattresses, bags of rubbish and other debris on muddy streets.

Street vendor Zenaida Cuerda, 55, said the food she had been selling had washed away and her house in Manila was flooded.

“All my capital is gone,” Cuerda told AFP. “I have nothing now, that’s my only livelihood.”

The region sees frequent tropical storms from July to October, but experts say climate change has increased their intensity, leading to heavy rains, flash floods and strong gusts.