STORY: Streets were quiet in Taiwan on Thursday after a powerful and deadly typhoon swept the island, killing at least two people and sinking a freighter offshore, whose crew are still missing.
Typhoon Gaemi was the strongest cyclone to hit Taiwan in eight years.
The weather authority says the storm made landfall around midnight on the northeastern coast of Yilan, packing gusts of up to 141 miles per hour before weakening.
The storm cut power to around half a million households in Taiwan, though the local power utility said most of it had been restored by midday Thursday.
The government said on top of the two people killed in the storm, more than 260 were counted as injured.
Gaemi dumped rain across the island – with eyewitness video showing floods in the southern city of Kaohsiung.
Fire officials also said a Tanzania-flagged freighter with nine Myanmar nationals on board had sunk off the city’s coast.
Authorities said they were searching for the crew, who have not responded to communications.
Separately, Philippine officials said they are investigating whether a sinking of a marine tanker in rough seas off their own coast on Thursday was related to the storm.
Gaemi did not make landfall in the Philippines, but flooded the capital Manila and nearby towns the day before, with hundreds of homes still without power.
Officials said at least 14 people there had died.
Meanwhile Gaemi is now barreling toward mainland China, where forecasters there say they expect a less intense storm, but heavy rain in many areas.
State media reports authorities gave warnings for coastal provinces Fujian and Zhejiang, suspended train services, and relocated some 150,000 people.
Source Agencies
