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Typhoon Meranti cuts power and shatters windows as it hits China
Typhoon Meranti kills two in China and Japan
(about 7 hours later)
Typhoon Meranti has hit south-eastern China bringing strong winds and lashing rain and cutting power in what state media said was the strongest storm of the year globally.
A powerful typhoon has swept into south-eastern China after hitting Taiwan, leaving a total of two dead and dozens injured.
The storm, registered as a super typhoon before losing strength after sweeping southern Taiwan, made landfall in the early hours of Thursday near the major city of Xiamen.
Weather officials in both China and Taiwan said Meranti was the strongest storm of its kind this year.
Pictures on state media showed flooded streets in Xiamen, fallen trees and crushed cars, as rescuers evacuated people using boats. There were no reports of casualties.
Chinese state media reported one death and one person missing, as high winds and rain shattered windows on tall buildings, knocked down trees and disrupted water supplies in China’s Fujian province, causing a widespread blackout in the coastal city of Xiamen.
Around 1.65 million people were without power across Fujian province on Thursday, more than 300,000 of them in Xiamen, local media said. Parts of the city also suffered water supply disruptions and some windows on tall buildings shattered, state news agency Xinhua said.
In Taiwan, the Central News Agency reported one person was killed and 44 were injured on the island by the storm. It said Meranti knocked out power in almost 1 million homes and water in more than 700,000.
The report said it was the strongest typhoon to hit that part of the country since the founding of Communist China in 1949 and the strongest so far this year anywhere in the world.
More than 140 trains heading into southeastern China were canceled. An 800-year-old bridge in Fujian province was one casualty of the storm; state media released video of a rapidly flowing river pushing against the bridge until it fell in.
Dozens of flights and train services have been cancelled, state television added, disrupting travel at the start of the three-day mid-autumn holiday.
Another video posted online shows a large, moon-shaped balloon bouncing between cars on a roadway. The balloon was an apparent decoration for Thursday’s start of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival in both mainland China and Taiwan.
Tens of thousands of people had already been evacuated as the storm approached and fishing boats called back to port.
Chinese meteorologists downgraded Meranti from a super typhoon to a tropical depression on Thursday afternoon and said they expect it to fade further as it moves north.
One person died and 38 were injured in Taiwan, the authorities said, as the typhoon hit the southern part of the island on Wednesday.
Meranti was a Category 5 typhoon, the strongest classification awarded by Tropical Storm Risk storm tracker, before it made landfall on the mainland and has since been downgraded to Category 2.
Typhoons are common at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross the warm waters of the Pacific and bringing fierce winds and rain when they hit land.
Meranti will continue to lose strength as it pushes inland and up towards China’s commercial capital of Shanghai, but will bring heavy rain.
