Taiwan shut its financial markets Thursday with Typhoon Khanun forecast to bring torrential rain to much of the northern coast as it sweeps past the island.
(Bloomberg) — Taiwan shut its financial markets Thursday with Typhoon Khanun forecast to bring torrential rain to much of the northern coast as it sweeps past the island.Â
Offices and schools were closed across much of northern Taiwan with local governments bracing for the periphery of the typhoon to dump heavy rain on Taipei, Keelung and Yilan County. There were no reports of major damage as of 10:30pm Wednesday, according to a statement from Taiwan’s Central Emergency Operation Center.
Khanun isn’t expected to make direct landfall in Taiwan. It is around 360 kilometers (223 miles) east-northeast of Taipei with its strongest winds reaching up to 198 kph, the weather bureau said in a statement Thursday morning.Â
Sea and land warnings are in effect for the areas along the northern coast closest to the storm.Â
While the typhoon is currently heading toward China, it is expected to dramatically change course and begin heading northeast toward Japan, according to Taiwan’s official forecasts.Â
About 170,000 buildings on the Japanese island of Okinawa were without power Thursday morning, according to a statement from Japan’s trade ministry. Recovery work is underway in areas where the strong winds have subsided, but work could still take some time as the typhoon is moving slowly, the statement said.
The authorities in southwest China are preparing for a potential impact, activating their emergency response and sending a team to Zhejiang province to assist with prevention work, Xinhua reported Thursday, citing a joint meeting by the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and Ministry of Emergency Management.
This comes as Beijing is dealing with the aftermath of the heaviest rain on record to hit the Chinese capital. At least 20 people were reported to have died as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri — which closed parts of southern Taiwan last week — caused widespread flooding and damage, and forced nearly a million people to be evacuated from their homes in Beijing and neighboring Hebei province this week.
China’s Ministry of Emergency Management warned that multiple regions face a high risk of flooding across the country in August, with two to three typhoons expected to make landfall or have a notable impact on China’s coastal areas, according to a report by Xinhua News Wednesday.
–With assistance from Argin Chang, Shoko Oda and Luz Ding.
(Added images and more details on Okinawa in sixth paragraph and on China in ninth paragraph.)
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