Taiwan Typhoon Leaves Millions Without Power, Thousands Evacuated

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Typhoon Soudelor has been battering Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain, leaving at least four people dead.

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Typhoon Soudelor has ripped through central Taiwan after making landfall on the east coast, cutting power to nearly 3 million households and causing the evacuation of over 7,500 people.

Four people have died, and scores injured as the eye of Typhoon passed over Taiwan, bringing down trees traffic lights and power lines. Hundreds of flights have been delayed or canceled authorities said.

Taiwan’s weather bureau says the typhoon is moving north-west, gradually losing its strength

The storm is later expected to move into the Taiwan Strait and on to mainland China.

RT reports: Thousands have been evacuated, with 1,300 people in temporary shelters across the island, according to AFP. All schools and workplaces were shut on Saturday.

The storm made landfall early on Saturday morning on the island’s east-coast counties of Yilan and Hualien, bringing up to 1,000mm of rain in mountainous northeastern areas, with wind raging at up to 200kph.

“This is one of the worst typhoons I have ever seen,” a sewage station engineer named Jiang, who was inspecting pumping stations early on Saturday, told Reuters.

“My car was shaking when I was driving. There are too many trees down, and I even saw six downed power poles,” he added.

Authorities said that a passing car killed a rescue worker while he was attempting to clear fallen branches from a road. Another man, a foreign worker, lost his life when a falling sign struck him.

As the massive storm approached from the Pacific Ocean on Friday, an eight-year-old girl and her mother died in rough seas off the coast of Yilan.

In Taipei, large steel sheets and rods were blown off a half-constructed stadium. City authorities shut down a number of bus and subway services. Tens of thousands of troops have been put on stand-by for rescue operations.

Flood and mudslide alerts have been issued as more rain and wind is forecast for late Saturday and Sunday. Soudelor is expected to cross the Taiwan Strait and hit the Chinese province of Fujian late on Saturday.

According to the island’s main power company, Taiwan Power, as many as 2.94 million households have lost power. While some supplies were later restored, two million households were still without power on Saturday afternoon, the company reported.

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