Typhoon Champi Kills One and Injures 527 as It Sweeps Past Taiwan Toward China
Seven Lights
Typhoon Champi swept past Taiwan early Saturday after glancing off the island’s northeast coast in the storm’s early hours, killing one person, injuring more than 500 and uprooting trees and severing power as it weakened and headed north toward the Chinese coast, The Guardian reported. Earlier classified as a super typhoon and one of the strongest storms in the Pacific this year, Champi was still packing gusts of about 126 kilometres (78 miles) per hour near its centre, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration, cited by The Guardian. The storm was about 150km east of Taiwan on Saturday, the CWA said, with its forecast track turning toward the Chinese coast, the paper said.
Taiwan’s fire department said one man had been killed after being swept by waves at Liuqiu, an island off the southern coast, The Guardian reported. Another 527 people were injured during heavy wind and torrential rain, the paper said; CNA’s tally also counted one death and 527 injuries as the storm swept past. Al Jazeera had earlier reported one death and 350 injuries as Champi struck on Friday.
Taipower said more than 167,000 homes had lost electricity, but most had now been reconnected, The Guardian reported. Emergency crews scrambled on Saturday to restore power to tens of thousands of homes as the storm moved towards China and Japan, Hong Kong FP said. Large parts of northern and central Taiwan, including Taipei, declared a second day of office and school closures on Saturday, and some flights were still being cancelled, The Guardian said. In Keelung, a structure built for a traditional Taoist religious ceremony collapsed in the storm’s winds, according to a photograph published by the paper.
One person has been killed and more than 500 injured since Thursday, when the government began issuing warnings about the approaching typhoon, Hong Kong FP reported. Taiwan is generally well prepared for typhoons, which keeps casualties low, and although the storms are more common in summer they can also strike in autumn, The Guardian noted.
The typhoon’s approach on Friday had shut shops, schools and offices across nearly all of Taiwan and forced thousands to evacuate ahead of landfall, with hundreds of flights cancelled across East Asia. On Saturday, large parts of the island remained closed and some flights were still being cancelled, The Guardian said.