TAIPEI/YILAN, Taiwan (Reuters) – A powerful typhoon battered Taiwan yesterday with strong wind and torrential rain, cutting power to 3.62 million households as the death toll rose to six.
Four people were missing and 101 were injured, authorities said. Hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled and more than 9,900 people were evacuated from their homes.
Television footage 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 1,000 mm (39 inches) of rain in mountainous areas and wind gusting up to 200 kph (124 mph).
Although the eye of Typhoon Soudelor passed Taiwan, and was heading towards mainland China, rain was expected to lash the island until this morning.
