KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan closed schools and offices and evacuated hundreds from vulnerable areas around the island Tuesday ahead of a strong typhoon expected to hit its densely populated western coast after lashing northern Philippine islands.
Dozens of flights were canceled, and more than 500 people were moved from mountainous regions prone to landslides. Nearly 40,000 troops were mobilized to help with rescue efforts, according to the Defense Ministry.
Typhoon Krathon is expected to hit the major port city of Kaohsiung in the island’s southwest on Wednesday morning then move across the center of Taiwan and northeast toward the East China Sea, according to the Central Weather Administration. It is expected to be felt in the capital Taipei, at the north os the island, on Wednesday and Thursday.
The mayor of Kaohsiung, a city of 2.7 million people, asked residents to stay indoors unless necessary and to avoid flooding and landslide-prone areas near rivers, the seaside and the mountains. Up to 80 centimeters (31 inches) of rain was forecast in surrounding mountainous areas.
Mayor Chen Chi-mai said Krathon will be “no less powerful” than 1977’s Typhoon Thelma, which devastated the city, leaving 37 dead and 298 injured.
The typhoon was moving slowly toward the island with maximum sustained winds of 198 kph (123 mph) and gusts of 245 kph (152 mph), according to the weather administration.
In the northern Philippines, the typhoon left at least one villager dead, displaced about 5,000 people, damaged more than 2,400 houses and set off widespread flooding, officials said.
Fierce wind damaged the airport terminal and two parked light planes in Basco, the capital town of the hard-hit province of Batanes. An airstrip and a hangar were also flooded in Lingayen town in Pangasinan province, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
A resident died of electrocution when he was hit on Monday by an electric cable downed by fierce wind while riding a motorcycle in the coastal town of Santa Ana in northern Cagayan province, officials said.
___
Associated Press journalist Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.