TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A strong typhoon was expected to make landfall in China on Thursday after sweeping across Taiwan, where it caused landslides and flooding in low-lying areas and left three dead.
Typhoon Gaemi swept up the western Pacific, intensifying seasonal rains earlier in the week in the Philippines, where the death toll has climbed to 22.
Offices and schools in Taiwan were closed for the second consecutive day on Thursday and people were urged to stay home and away from the coastline. Two people were killed on Wednesday before the storm made landfall around midnight, and a 78-year-old man died after his home was hit by a mudslide on Thursday afternoon, Taiwan’s Central News Agency said. Another 380 people were reported injured.
A third death on Wednesday - a driver pinned under an overturned excavator - was initially attributed to the typhoon but later was determined not be linked, the news agency said.
The island is regularly hit by typhoons and has boosted its warning systems, but its topography, high population density and high-tech economy make it difficult to avoid losses when such storms hit. The capital, Taipei, was unusually quiet, with light rain falling and occasionally gusting winds.
In China’s coastal Fujian province, flights, trains and ferry services were canceled, and more than 150,000 people evacuated as the typhoon approached, the official Xinhua News Agency said. After hitting the coast, the storm is expected to bring heavy rains to inland areas including the capital, Beijing, over the next three days.
In the Philippines, the death toll rose due to drownings and landslides. At least three people are missing, according to police.
The Philippine coast guard reported that an oil tanker, MT Terra Nova, loaded with about 1.4 million liters (370,000 gallons) of industrial fuel oil sank off Limay town in Bataan province early Thursday and rescuers saved 15 of 16 crew members.
It’s not immediately clear if the sinking was related to the bad weather and rough seas but Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista said coast guard personnel could not immediately reach the area to contain a possible oil spill because of the rough sea conditions.
The storm prompted the cancellation of air force drills off Taiwan’s east coast.
Gaemi, called Carina in the Philippines, did not make landfall in that archipelago but enhanced its seasonal monsoon rains.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered authorities to speed up efforts to deliver food and other aid to isolated rural villages.
“People there may not have eaten for days,” Marcos said in a televised emergency meeting.
In the densely populated region around the Philippine capital, government work and school classes were suspended after rains flooded many areas.
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Associated Press journalists Jim Gomez and Joeal Calupitan in Manila, Philippines, and Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.
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