Chinese state media reports Typhoon Gaemi has made landfall in China’s southeastern Fujian province after crossing Taiwan and sending heavy rains into the Philippines that sank at least one ship and left more than 20 dead.
China’s CCTV news channel reported that Gaemi made landfall at 7:50 p.m. local time in Fujian province and is expected to unleash heavy rains over much of China as it heads to the northwest. State news agency Xinhua reported Chinese officials said they had evacuated more than 150,000 people in the province ahead of the storm.
Officials in Taiwan said businesses and schools were closed across much of northern Taiwan for a second day Thursday after Gaemi, the strongest storm to hit the island in eight years, swept through, flooding streets, knocking out power and leaving three people dead and hundreds injured.
Video posted on social media showed streets in the capital turned into rivers, with shops flooded and water reaching over the wheels of parked cars. Taiwan’s meteorological office said several areas of the island received more than 100 centimeters (39 inches) of rainfall between Wednesday night and midday Thursday.
In photos: Typhoon Gaemi
In Photos: Typhoon Gaemi
Meteorologists also said the southern port city of Kaohsiung recorded 135 centimeters (53 inches) of rain, with large areas of the city left under more than a meter of flood water.
In a statement, Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council said the storm stranded five freighters off the island’s coast, sinking one of them. The statement said a Tanzania-flagged freighter with nine Myanmar nationals on board had sunk off the coast of Kaohsiung and rescue efforts were ongoing.
While the storm did not make landfall in the Philippines, authorities there said the storm exacerbated seasonal monsoon rain as it passed nearby, triggering floods and landslides that killed 22 people.
The Philippines Coast Guard said authorities are racing to contain an oil spill following the sinking of a tanker, the MT Terra Nova, in heavy seas generated by the typhoon.
Coast guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo told reporters Thursday one crew member was killed when the ship sank, about seven kilometers off the coast of Limay in Bataan province.
The ship was carrying 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel when it sank, and Balilo said an oil slick several kilometers long had been detected near where the ship went down.
He said a coast guard ship was sent to the scene to assist with rescue efforts and assess the status of the tanker. Philippines officials confirmed 16 of the ship’s 17 crew members had been rescued.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
