Chinese officials have evacuated more than 100,000 people and recalled tens of thousands of fishing boats into port. Megi had hit Taiwan, leaving hundreds of people injured and three million temporarily without power.
Typhoon Megi slammed into China’s southeastern coast Wednesday morning after raking Taiwan with 162 kmph winds and heavy rains that left four people dead and hundreds injured.
Chinese authorities, anticipating the storm, had evacuated more than 120,000 people from Fujian Province. Nearly 32,000 fishing boats were recalled to port and dozens of flights were cancelled, Deutsche Welle reported.
Up to 400 mm of rain are expected to lash Fujian and neighboring Guangdong Province.
Megi dumped more than 12 inches of rain as it whistled across Taiwan, the small island nation 180 kilometers east of China. Mountains in the south and east of the island were hardest hit by the storm, which is 500 km in diameter.
Among the dead in Taiwan, three people suffered fatal falls and a fourth person died in a truck crash, according to Lee Wei-sen, a spokesman for Taiwan’s Central Emergency Operations Center. In all, more than 520 people were injured, many after being hit by wind-blown objects.
Nearly three million households lost power during the height of the storm in Taiwan, but electricity was restored to nearly one million of them by late Tuesday night, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without water in Taiwan. Schools and offices were closed across the country and most of the rail network was shut down.
Typhoons are typical at this time of year, gathering strength as they crawl across warm Pacific waters, eventually bringing howling winds and rain when they make landfall.
Travel alerts were posted, with warnings given of likely landslides and flooding.
