Typhoon Danas lashes southern Taiwan with record winds, injuring hundreds
Taiwan is regularly struck by typhoons but they generally land along the mountainous and sparsely populated east coast facing the Pacific.
Business and schools were shut along the west coast with the storm reaching winds of around 220 km per hour as it tore through the southwestern county of Yunlin after making landfall along Taiwan's southwestern shores late on Sunday.
Over 700 trees were felled across western cities and towns and road signs were ripped off and strewn across the streets, government data showed.
More than 650 electric poles and three major electric towers were knocked down across the island, in what Taiwan Power Company described as damage "unseen for decades" to its power grid.
In the southern city of Tainan, some concrete electric poles were snapped off at their bases while a wooden gate of a major temple collapsed, local television footage showed.
Typhoon Danas, at one point listed by Taiwan's weather authority at the second-strongest level, has greatly weakened since and was forecast to hit eastern China later this week.
"The typhoon track is rare... the whole of Taiwan will be affected by the wind and rain one after another," President Lai Ching-te said in a post on Facebook, urging citizens to make preparations.
Power to more than 710,000 homes was cut and over 300 domestic and international flights were cancelled, government data showed. The north-south high-speed rail line scaled back services.
The National Fire Agency said one person was killed by a falling tree while driving and another died after their respirator malfunctioned due to a power cut.
There was no major report of damage in the Tainan Science Park that houses tech giants such as TSMC.
Maritime officials in eastern China's Zhejiang province raised their emergency response to the second-highest level on Monday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
As of 10 a.m. (0200 GMT), 121 passenger vessels and 64 ferry routes had been suspended across the province, CCTV reported. Authorities also halted 181 construction projects, including wind farms, as a precaution.
Danas is expected to gradually approach the coastal areas between Zhejiang's city of Taizhou and Fuzhou city in neighbouring Fujian province, according to the China Meteorological Administration.
The typhoon is forecast to make landfall along the stretch late on Tuesday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Khaleej Times
a day ago
- Khaleej Times
Texas floods: How geography, climate and policy failures collided
"There's no such thing as a natural disaster," geographers like to say -- a reminder that human choices turn hazards into tragedies. The Texas flash floods this weekend that left more than a hundred dead, including many children, offer a stark illustration. Here is a look at the intertwined forces that amplified this storm's impact. - 'Flash Flood Alley' - Texas's Hill Country sits in an area known as "Flash Flood Alley," explains Hatim Sharif, a hydrologist at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Warm Gulf air rushes up the Balcones Escarpment -- a line of steep hills and cliffs that arcs southwest down from near Dallas -- cools, and dumps torrents onto thin soils that quickly give way to bedrock. Runoff then funnels through a dense web of creeks. "Water will rise very, very quickly, within minutes or a few hours," Sharif told AFP. The early hours of July 4 proved that. Around 3:00 am, a gauge near Camp Mystic in Hunt showed the Guadalupe River rising nearly a foot (30 centimeters) every five minutes; by 4:30 am the river had surged more than 20 feet, National Weather Service data show. That's enough water to sweep away people, vehicles and buildings. An urgent NWS warning went out shortly after 1 am, but most campers were asleep; phones are banned, coverage is patchy, and darkness makes escape routes hard to judge. Sharif urges the use of hydrologic forecasts that convert rainfall into likely river levels. "Rainfall needs to be translated into runoff," he said. "If you have 10 inches, what will happen?" Summer camps have long been drawn to the region for its natural beauty. But with increasing risks, Sharif warns that treating these sites as safe or permanent is unwise. - 'We need to adapt' - A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, loading the dice for heavier downpours. A new analysis by ClimaMeter finds that the meteorological conditions preceding the floods, which delivered more than twice the monthly average rainfall in a single day, could not be explained by natural variability alone. "Climate change is already affecting us, so we need to adapt," said Mireia Ginesta, a climate scientist at the University of Oxford who co-authored the research, which is funded by the European Union and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). "We also need to cut our emissions, and make sure that proper funding is provided to the forecast services and research in general on climate change." The call comes as the National Weather Service, like other agencies, has experienced deep staffing cuts under President Donald Trump's administration. Experts stress, however, that NWS forecasters performed admirably under the circumstances. The real failure, wrote climate scientist Daniel Swain on Bluesky, "was not a bad weather prediction, it was one of 'last mile' forecast/warning dissemination." - No warning system - For years, commissioners in Kerr County, where the camps lie, considered flood sirens and digital alerts to replace the informal practice of summer camp staff getting on the radio and warning fellow camps. Minutes from a 2016 meeting show officials labeling even a feasibility study "a little extravagant," suggesting sirens would mainly help tourists, and vouching for the word-of-mouth system. "The thought of our beautiful Kerr County having these damn sirens going off in the middle of night, I'm going to have to start drinking again to put up with y'all," Commissioner H.A. Buster Baldwin said in a transcript. The debate rolled on. Residents during meetings in 2021 expressed strident opposition toward relying on federal funds tied to the Biden administration. After the disaster, San Antonio mother Nicole Wilson -- who almost sent her daughters to Camp Mystic -- launched a petition on urging Governor Greg Abbott to approve a modern warning network. "Five minutes of that siren going off could have saved every single one of those children," she told AFP.
Khaleej Times
2 days ago
- Khaleej Times
Typhoon Danas lashes southern Taiwan with record winds, injuring hundreds
Typhoon Danas lashed southern Taiwan with record winds and strong rain early on Monday, killing two people and injuring more than 630 in a rare hit to the island's densely populated west coast. Taiwan is regularly struck by typhoons but they generally land along the mountainous and sparsely populated east coast facing the Pacific. Business and schools were shut along the west coast with the storm reaching winds of around 220 km per hour as it tore through the southwestern county of Yunlin after making landfall along Taiwan's southwestern shores late on Sunday. Over 700 trees were felled across western cities and towns and road signs were ripped off and strewn across the streets, government data showed. More than 650 electric poles and three major electric towers were knocked down across the island, in what Taiwan Power Company described as damage "unseen for decades" to its power grid. In the southern city of Tainan, some concrete electric poles were snapped off at their bases while a wooden gate of a major temple collapsed, local television footage showed. Typhoon Danas, at one point listed by Taiwan's weather authority at the second-strongest level, has greatly weakened since and was forecast to hit eastern China later this week. "The typhoon track is rare... the whole of Taiwan will be affected by the wind and rain one after another," President Lai Ching-te said in a post on Facebook, urging citizens to make preparations. Power to more than 710,000 homes was cut and over 300 domestic and international flights were cancelled, government data showed. The north-south high-speed rail line scaled back services. The National Fire Agency said one person was killed by a falling tree while driving and another died after their respirator malfunctioned due to a power cut. There was no major report of damage in the Tainan Science Park that houses tech giants such as TSMC. Maritime officials in eastern China's Zhejiang province raised their emergency response to the second-highest level on Monday, according to state broadcaster CCTV. As of 10 a.m. (0200 GMT), 121 passenger vessels and 64 ferry routes had been suspended across the province, CCTV reported. Authorities also halted 181 construction projects, including wind farms, as a precaution. Danas is expected to gradually approach the coastal areas between Zhejiang's city of Taizhou and Fuzhou city in neighbouring Fujian province, according to the China Meteorological Administration. The typhoon is forecast to make landfall along the stretch late on Tuesday.
Khaleej Times
3 days ago
- Khaleej Times
Taiwan: Thousands evacuate as Typhoon Danas triggers floods, landslides
Nearly 3,000 people in Taiwan evacuated their homes on Sunday, authorities said, as Typhoon Danas dumped torrential rain on the island, triggering floods and landslides. Packing maximum sustained wind speeds of 137km (85 miles) an hour, Danas is expected to sweep northwards along Taiwan's west coast overnight, the Central Weather Administration said in an advisory. At least 28 people have been treated for minor injuries, according to the National Fire Agency. Danas dumped more than 500mm (20 inches) of rain across southern Taiwan over the weekend, the weather agency said, warning of heavy to torrential rain across the rest of the island as the typhoon moves north. "Tonight through tomorrow morning will see the strongest wind and rain impacts," the weather agency said. Most of the 2,853 people evacuated from their homes were in mountainous areas around the southern port city of Kaohsiung, the National Fire Agency said. At least 10 landslides were recorded and 49 areas flooded, but the water has since receded, it added. Taiwan is accustomed to frequent tropical storms from July to October.
