Key points
- Typhoon is packing wind speeds of 155 kilometres per hour at its centre: CWA
- Over 5,500 people have been evacuated from their homes ahead of Podul: Officials
- All domestic flights across island have been cancelled
ISLAMABAD: Thousands of people sheltered and fishermen secured their boats across storm-battered southern Taiwan on Wednesday as Typhoon Podul intensified on its approach to the island.
The typhoon is packing wind speeds of 155 kilometres (96 miles) per hour at its centre and “is strengthening”, AFP cited Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecaster Lin Ting-yi as saying.
Podul is on track to hit lightly populated Taitung County at around noon (0400 GMT) before sweeping across the island and into the Taiwan Strait, according to AFP.
“We are worried about this typhoon,” Kaohsiung fisherman Huang Wei said as he used more ropes to tie down his boat and checked on other vessels.
Typhoon preparations
“We had already made general typhoon preparations yesterday, but this morning I woke up and saw news reports that the typhoon has intensified to be as strong as the last, (Typhoon) Krathon,” AFP cited Huang as saying.
“Last time, the two boats behind us weren’t tied properly and hit my boat.”
Krathon slammed into Kaohsiung in October, with wind gusts of 162kph. Podul has gusts of 191kph, Lin said.
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More than 5,500 people have been evacuated from their homes ahead of Podul, disaster officials said Wednesday, as the typhoon threatens to pound central and southern regions that are still recovering from storms last month.
Mountainous areas of Kaohsiung City and neighbouring Pingtung County, as well as Hualien and Taitung counties, could see torrential rain, the CWA said.
Ferry services
All domestic flights across the island of 23 million people have been cancelled, along with dozens of international journeys.
Many ferry services have been suspended and businesses and schools across the south closed.
Typhoon Danas, which hit Taiwan in early July, killed two people and injured hundreds as the storm dumped more than 500mm (about 20 inches) of rain across the south over a weekend.
That was followed by torrential rain from July 28 to August 4, with some areas recording more than Taiwan’s rainfall of 2.1 metres for 2024, AFP reported.
The week of bad weather left five people dead, three missing, and 78 injured, a disaster official said previously.
