TAIWAN, IRAN: Taiwan was on high alert Wednesday as it braced for the arrival of Typhoon Gaemi. Financial markets were closed, people were on holiday for the day, flights were canceled and the military was on standby amid forecasts of heavy rain.
Meteorological authorities said Ant, which is expected to be the strongest storm to hit Taiwan in eight years, was expected to make landfall on the northeastern coast on Wednesday evening.
The typhoon's status was upgraded to a severe typhoon, with wind gusts of up to 227 km/h near its center.
After passing through the Taiwan Strait, it is likely to make landfall in Fujian Province in southeastern China late Thursday afternoon.
“The next 24 hours will be a very serious challenge,” Taiwan's Premier Zhao Zhongtai told a televised meeting of the country's emergency response center.
In Yilan County, a rural area where the typhoon first made landfall, most roads were empty and restaurants closed as winds and rain intensified.
“This could be the biggest typhoon in recent years,” Hong Chun, a fishing captain, told Reuters, adding that the Iranian port of Suao was packed with boats seeking shelter.
“It's heading straight for the east coast and if it makes landfall here, the damage will be enormous.”
Work and school were closed across Taiwan, and the streets of the capital Taipei were nearly empty.
The government said more than 2,000 people had been evacuated from sparsely populated mountainous areas at high risk of landslides due to “extremely heavy rains.”
According to the Ministry of Transportation, nearly all domestic flights have been canceled, and 201 international flights have been canceled.
All rail service will be suspended from noon, but high-speed rail lines linking northern and southern Taiwan will continue to operate on a shortened schedule, he added.
However, TSMC, the world's largest contract semiconductor manufacturer and a major supplier to Apple, said it expects its factories to maintain normal production during the typhoon after activating regular preparations.
Soldiers on standby
The Meteorological Agency said the typhoon was expected to bring up to 1,800 millimeters of rain to some mountainous areas in central and southern Taiwan.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said it had 29,000 soldiers on standby for disaster relief efforts.
Although this year's Han Kuang war drills were significantly scaled back due to the typhoon, the exercise has not been canceled and live-fire training is scheduled to be conducted on Wednesday on Penghu Island in the Taiwan Strait.
The Ministry of Water Resources warned that Typhoon Ant was expected to bring heavy to extremely heavy rain across vast areas of China starting Thursday.
According to the announcement on Wednesday, the area is between the Pearl River basin in the south and the Songhua and Liao river basins on the northeastern border with Russia and North Korea.
He added that rain is expected to continue until July 31 due to the typhoon's abundant moisture.
Gaemi and the southwest monsoon brought heavy rains to the Philippines' capital and northern regions on Wednesday, disrupting work and school, and halting stock and foreign exchange trading. The storm killed 12 people.
Typhoons can be very destructive, but Taiwan relies on them to replenish its reservoirs after traditionally dry winters, especially in the south.
