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Typhoon Soudelor pounded Taiwan with fierce winds and torrential rain Saturday, killing four people, including a mother and daughter swept out to sea.
Television footage showed trees uprooted and power poles toppled over, a moped being swept into the air by wind, and shipping containers piled on top of each other at a port.
“The storm will weaken but we expect more rain, particularly in southern Taiwan,” said Wang Shih-chien, an official with the island’s Central Weather Bureau.
The storm made landfall early on the island’s east-coast counties of Yilan and Hualien, bringing more than 1,000mm of rain in mountainous areas and wind gusting up to 200km/h.
Although the eye of Typhoon Soudelor passed Taiwan, and was heading towards mainland China, rain was expected to lash the island until Sunday morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BQ50ZZNi2E
“This is one of the worst typhoons I have ever seen,” said a sewage station engineer surnamed Jiang, who was inspecting pumping stations early on Saturday in eastern Taiwan.
“My car was shaking when I was driving. There are too many trees down, and I even saw six downed power poles.”
In the capital, Taipei, large steel sheets and rods were blown off a half-built stadium and city authorities shut down much public transport.
“The metal roof of the house next door to mine was completely blown away,” said resident Jack Lin. “I saw a car crushed to bits.”
Authorities issued flood and mudslide alerts and television showed mud trapping people and murky water nearly covering the roofs of cars.
Taiwan Power, the island’s main power company, said 3.62 million households had lost power. While some supplies had been restored, 1.5 million households were still without power on Saturday afternoon, it said.
Authorities there have evacuated people on the coast and begun cancelling flights and trains.
Agencies/Canadajournal
