Hundreds of flights cancelled as Typhoon Champi shuts Taiwan
One person has died after being swept away by waves in Taiwan's Liuqiu island.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled on Friday across East Asia as Typhoon Champi moved dangerously close to Taiwan’s north-east coast.
As Champi approached the island, schools and offices in Taiwan were closed. It was still unclear whether the storm would make landfall, but forecasters said it was expected to dump 90cm (35in) of rain and bring strong winds to the north-east through Saturday.
Authorities said one person died after being swept away by waves. The storm also left 171 people injured and forced 1,000 others to evacuate.
Champi is the latest in a run of powerful typhoons as a Super El Niño warms the Pacific Ocean and intensifies storms. Earlier this week, at its strongest, it was the most powerful storm on the planet so far this year.
By Friday afternoon, Champi was producing wind gusts of 191 kph (119mph).
After moving past Taiwan’s north-eastern tip and the Okinawa islands in southern Japan, Champi is expected to linger over waters off China’s eastern coast before turning farther north-east toward Japan’s main island.
Although weather agencies in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan forecast that the storm’s eye will pass without landfall in Taiwan, a forecaster at Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration told Reuters that landfall could not be ruled out. That risk would be greater if the storm "stalls, loops, or wobbles from side to side" as it nears Taiwan, he said.
The Central Weather Administration said rainfall is expected to peak on Saturday morning and keep battering Taiwan until Saturday evening.
Taiwanese authorities have advised people to stay away from coasts and mountains.
Work and classes were suspended on Friday in almost all of Taiwan’s 22 counties and cities — a move commonly referred to as a "typhoon holiday" — as Champi neared the island.
Taiwan’s $5tn (£3.7tn) stock exchange was also shut on Friday because of the severe weather.
Only Kinmen county, an archipelago west of Taiwan’s main island, continued work and classes as normal.
In Japan, Okinawa Electric Power reported power outages in nearly 8,400 households in the southern Okinawa prefecture.
More than 160 flights were cancelled by four Japanese airlines.
Champi also brought heavy rain and strong winds to Batanes, a Philippine island chain south of Taiwan.
Photos posted on the local government’s Facebook page showed waves hitting seaside villages and roads closed to traffic. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Typhoon Champi became the year’s strongest storm earlier this week, reaching maximum sustained winds of 185mph (298km/h) as it crossed the Philippine Sea — equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane.
Initially classified as a "super typhoon", Champi weakened on Wednesday as it kept moving across the sea.
The region is heading into one of its most active typhoon seasons in years. Champi is Japan’s 30th typhoon of the year, the first time since 2013 that the country has recorded so many storms.
The recent surge in storms is linked to an unusually strong El Niño, a naturally occurring event that affects the Pacific Ocean every few years and can set off extreme weather, from droughts to typhoons.