Given the approach of Typhoon Krathon, which is already causing torrential rains in the south and east of the island, and which has left several dozen injured, Taiwan is preparing. Schools, offices and the Taiwan Stock Exchange are notably closed on Wednesday, October 2, while no planes arrive or take off from the island.
“This typhoon is moving very slowly”said Cheng Chia-ping, head of the Central Meteorological Administration (CWA), specifying that it should make landfall on Thursday around 10 a.m., near Kaohsiung or Tainan (southwest), instead of Wednesday, before rapidly weakening. At the same time on Wednesday, the typhoon, characterized by sustained winds of 173 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 209 kilometers per hour, was located 140 kilometers southwest of the southern city of Kaohsiung, according to the CWA. He had just been demoted overnight from the third and highest category to the second.
As a precautionary measure, nearly ten thousand people were evacuated from areas considered at risk, the Taiwanese Ministry of the Interior reported. All domestic flights and ferry travel are also cancelled, while 250 international flights are suspended. The authorities have already identified forty-six people injured due to the typhoon on the island and one person is missing on the high seas, in Yunlin county (west).
“Catastrophic damage” expected
Nearly forty thousand soldiers are ready to participate in possible relief operations, the Ministry of Defense reported. President Lai Ching-te warned on Tuesday that the typhoon could cause “catastrophic damage” and urged the Taiwanese to be “particularly vigilant”. In Kaohsiung, authorities began distributing sandbags and materials to evacuate water.
In July, Typhoon Gaemi, the most powerful to hit the island in eight years, caused widespread flooding in the city and killed at least ten people in Taiwan, as well as fifty in China due to the torrential rains in its path. and at least forty in the Philippines.
In the Philippines, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said Wednesday that eight people were injured and another missing due to Krathon in the north of the country. More than 5,400 people had to leave their homes, most of them in the northern regions of Ilocos and Cagayan Valley, according to the same source.
Typhoons are common in the region at this time of year. However, a recent study concluded that they are forming closer to the coast, gaining intensity more quickly and persisting longer after landfall due to climate change.
