At least 58 injured as Typhoon batters Taiwan

At least 58 people were injured and over one million households were left without electricity when typhoon Haitang hit northern Taiwan Monday with torrential rain and wind gusting at over 230 kilometers per hour, according to reports reaching here from Taipei.

The reports said most of injured were hurt by falling trees, billboards and broken glass. Some of them were motorcyclists who were hurt when they were knocked off their bikes by the gusting wind.

Strong winds disrupted power supplies in the counties of Changhua, Pingtung, Yunlin, Tainan, Hualien and Ilan. Statistics show that as of Monday morning, more than 1.07 million households were without electricity.

Continuing heavy rain caused considerable damage to crops in Kaohsiung County. The county government estimated that 1,132 hectares of farmland were flooded, with losses running at nearly 100 million new Taiwan dollars.

Airlines using Taiwan's airports canceled more than 160 scheduled flights Monday, affecting the travel plans of some 12, 000 passengers. Railway transportation island-wide has also been stopped since Sunday night.

The typhoon, described as the largest to hit Taiwan in five years, spent seven hours off Hualien, eastern Taiwan, where it made a counter-clockwise 360-degree turn and then resumed its movement in a west-northwesterly direction. The eye of the typhoon landed at Tungao, Ilan County in northeastern Taiwan at 2:50 p.m. Monday.

According to local weather report, by late Monday afternoon, the typhoon's intensity had reduced to that of a medium typhoon, with its radius shrinking from 240 km to 200 km.

At 7:00 p.m., the typhoon's eye was located about 40 km west-southwest of Ilan. Packing center winds of 162 kph and gusts at 198 kph, the storm was moving west-northwest at 14 kph, with its speed expected to slow down to 11 kph.

Source: Xinhua