Typhoon Megi batters Taiwan and moves on to China
Typhoon Megi caused more than $10 million in damage as it swept across Taiwan before weakening into a tropical storm after hitting the coastal city of Quanzhou in China’s Fujian province before dawn, The Wall Street Journal reported Sept. 28.
In Taiwan, nearly 4 million homes lost power and 10 provincial highways remained closed Wednesday, one day after heavy rain and sustained winds of 160 kilometers an hour blanketed the island, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reported. More than 4,800 people remained in emergency shelters Wednesday afternoon.
With the amount of precipitation having fallen in recent days, the additional heavy rain delivered by Megi is likely to cause life-threatening floods and landslides, according to AIR Worldwide.
More than 3 million Taiwanese homes have lost power, more than 11,000 people evacuated and 35,000 households are without water supply.
Roofs have been torn off buildings and waves reportedly reached four stories high in the coastal city of Hualien.
“The most active period for typhoons is June through October, with a peak in August and September,” said Anna Trevino, senior scientist at AIR Worldwide.
“An average of two typhoons make landfall in Taiwan every year with another three coming close enough to land to cause loss. Taiwan’s eastern coast, where typhoons make landfall and heavy wind damage tends to occur, is relatively unpopulated.
“Typhoons then typically weaken rapidly upon interaction with the formidable central mountain range, which rises quickly from sea level to elevations as high as nearly 4,000 millimetres within 50 kilometres of the coast. As a result, the greatest threat the country faces from typhoons is usually rain-induced flooding as storm systems pass through. It is not uncommon for more than 1,000 millimetres of precipitation to fall during the passage of a typhoon.”
