Taiwan halted flights and closed schools in portions of its southern region on Wednesday ahead of Typhoon Koinu’s predicted landfall, the island’s second significant storm in a month.
From May to November, Taiwan is prone to tropical storms, but Typhoon Haikui last month was the first in four years, unleashing torrential rains, and powerful gusts and causing over 8,000 people to flee their homes.
Climate change, according to experts, has made tropical storm routes more difficult to predict while increasing their severity, resulting in increased rains and flash floods.
More than 100 international and domestic flights have been cancelled, ahead of Thursday’s forecast typhoon, and ferry services to Taiwan’s outlying islands have also been suspended.
More than 200 people were evacuated due to fears of landslides in the island’s south, and authorities warned that waves lashing the coast might be seven metres (22 feet) high.
On Wednesday, fishing boats were crowded into a fishing harbour in Pingtung county to take refuge ahead of the typhoon, while primary schools in Taitung’s agricultural district permitted students to leave early.
“It’s barely a month, and we have another typhoon”, Yang Pi-cheng, 65, grandkids from Dawang Primary School.
As a precaution, a key roadway along the shore has also been closed.
Koinu, which has been following a zigzag path towards Taiwan’s southern coast, is now only 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of the island, moving towards it at 10 kilometres per hour.
The storm has already dumped heavy rainfall on Yilan and New Taipei City’s hilly northeastern districts.
“We forecast that its centre will pass through the Hengchun Peninsula at the southern tip of Taiwan tomorrow morning”, stated Lu Kuo-Chen, head of Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration.
Typhoon Koinu is expected to proceed towards the eastern coast of China’s Guangdong province after making landfall in Taiwan, according to the weather observatory in nearby Hong Kong.
The Chinese territory, which was brushed by another typhoon last month before being flooded by the heaviest rainfall in 140 years a few days later, will issue its lowest typhoon warning on Wednesday evening.
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