YILAN, Taiwan: Taiwan was on high alert for Typhoon Gaimi on Wednesday, with financial markets shuttered, people given the day off and flights cancelled, while the military was put on alert amid forecasts of torrential rain.
Gaime, expected to be Taiwan's strongest typhoon in eight years, is expected to make landfall on the northeastern coast on Wednesday evening, weather officials said.
They upgraded it to a strong hurricane, producing gusts of up to 145 mph (227 km/h) near its center.
After crossing the Taiwan Strait, it is likely to hit southeast China's Fujian province late Thursday afternoon.
“The next 24 hours will bring a very severe challenge,” Taiwanese Prime Minister Cho Jong-tai told a televised emergency response center briefing.
In rural Yelan County, where the storm will make landfall first, the wind and rain picked up and restaurants closed as most of the roads were empty.
“This could be the biggest storm in years,” fishing boat captain Hong Chun told Reuters.
This plane is charging straight for the east coast and if it gets here, the damage will be enormous.
Work and school were suspended across Taiwan, and the streets in the capital, Taipei, were almost deserted.
The government said more than 2,000 people had been evacuated from sparsely populated mountainous areas at risk of landslides from “heavy torrential rain”.
Almost all domestic flights have been canceled along with 201 international flights, the transport ministry said.
The organization added: All rail operations will be suspended from noon today, with a brief schedule for high-speed lines between northern and southern Taiwan that will continue to operate.
However, TSMC, the world's largest contract chip maker and a major supplier to Apple, said it expected its factories to maintain normal production during the storm after activating routine preparations.
Soldiers standing by
The typhoon is expected to bring up to 1,800 millimeters of rain to some mountainous counties in central and southern Taiwan, according to Taiwanese weather officials.
Taiwan's defense ministry said it had put 29,000 troops on standby for disaster relief.
The typhoon has severely curtailed this year's annual Han Kuang war games, but they have not been canceled with live-fire drills planned for Wednesday on the Pengu Islands in the Taiwan Strait.
The Ministry of Water Resources warned that Ghaemi is expected to bring heavy to very heavy rains over large areas of China from Thursday.
The areas are between the Pearl River Basin in the south and the Songhua and Liao River Basins on the northeast border with Russia and North Korea, it was announced on Wednesday.
Rains are expected to continue until July 31, driven by the storm's abundant moisture.
Gaimi and the southwest monsoon brought heavy rain to the Philippine capital region and northern provinces on Wednesday, halting work and schools and suspending stock and currency trading. The storm killed 12 people.
While typhoons can be very destructive, Taiwan relies on them to fill reservoirs after drier winters, especially in its south.
