Super Typhoon Meranti hits China
After delivering strong winds, high storm surge and flooding to southern Taiwan on Wednesday, Super Typhoon Meranti has made landfall in mainland China.
It is considered the strongest storm in the world this year and the most intense typhoon since Haiyan in 2013, according catastrophe modelling firm AIR Worldwide.
Many flights and train services in southern China have been cancelled and tens of thousands of people have been evacuated.
In Taiwan, it caused more than 260,000 households to lose power, numerous cars to be washed away in flooded streets, two nuclear power plants to be shut down and around 1,500 people evacuated.
Rough seas and storm surge have resulted in disabled boats, including a Kaohsiung freighter which lost containers as it was swept away.
“Typhoon Meranti (pronounced me-run-ti and called ‘Ferdie’ in the Philippines) experienced rapid intensification early in the week, with wind speed increasing more than 150 kilometres per hour in a 24-hour period,” said Peter Sousounis, assistant vice president and director of meteorology, AIR Worldwide.
“Although Meranti did not make landfall on Taiwan, most of the country has been impacted by the extreme winds and substantial precipitation – rainfall totals as great as 700 millimetres (28 inches) have been reported – due to the massive, 560 kilometer windfield.”
Meranti closely follows deadly Typhoon Nepartak, which struck central and southern Taiwan and coastal China in July.
Sousounis added: “As Super Typhoon Meranti passed through the Strait of Luzon, just off the south coast of Taiwan, the storm brought rough seas, a damaging surf, high storm surge, and heavy precipitation—in addition to extremely high winds—to southern Taiwan, resulting in dropped trees and power lines, some coastal flooding, and a high risk of mudslides in mountainous regions.”
