The fiercest typhoon to hit Taiwan in eight years killed five people and flooded portions of the island’s second-largest city on Thursday, with rescuers looking for six sailors who went missing when their cargo ship sank in the storm.
Typhoon Gaemi turned streets in southern Kaohsiung city into rivers, flooding some homes with rainwater. Schools and offices in various cities remained closed for a second day, while the stock exchange was suspended and thousands of people were evacuated.
Gaemi also intensified seasonal rains in the Philippines as it headed to Taiwan, causing flooding and landslides that killed 20 people. A tanker carrying 1.4 million liters of oil sank off Manila on Thursday, with authorities trying to limit the flow.
The storm had decreased by Thursday morning, and “the centre has moved out to sea” at roughly 4:20 a.m. local time (2020 GMT), according to Taiwan’s weather authority.
Taiwan’s fire agency said it received word early Thursday that a cargo ship had sunk off the island’s southern coast, forcing nine Myanmar crew members to escape ship in life vests.
“They fell into the sea and were floating there,” said Hsiao Huan-chang, chief of the fire department.
Hsiao did not indicate when the Tanzania-flagged ship sank, but bad weather hampered the search, which had been underway since 3:30 p.m. (0730 GMT).
Taiwan’s Coast Guard later stated that two crew members were taken to a police station in the late afternoon.
“They were confirmed to be the first mate and chef of the ship,” the Coast Guard said, adding that authorities expanded a shore patrol and found another sailor.
“The Coast Guard will continue to expand the search for the remaining crew members who fell into the sea,” it said.
Gaemi made landfall in China’s Fujian province shortly before 8:00 pm local time (1200 GMT) on Thursday, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.
Mudslides, falling trees
During the storm in southern Taiwan’s Pingtung county, an Indonesian ship was forced to anchor on a beach, with tremendous waves pounding onto it, according to local TV footage.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard reported that the crew was safe, with “no loss of power or oil leakage.”
Gaemi made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday night, with sustained winds reaching 190 kilometers (118 miles) per hour at its peak.
At least five persons were confirmed dead, and up to 500 were reported injured.
A tree crushed a motorist in Kaohsiung, while a lady died in eastern Hualien after a building collapsed on her.
Mudslides struck two residences in Kaohsiung, trapping two individuals and killing a third. A woman was rescued from one, but the second person was discovered dead.
Authorities reported another man was murdered in southern Tainan, while a fifth person was killed by a falling tree.
Taiwan’s defense ministry also stated Thursday that its annual Han Kuang war games, which had already been canceled due to weather, had ended a day early, with troops dispatched to assist local governments with disaster relief efforts.
Hundreds of local and international flights were once again canceled due to the storm.
Flood warnings
Before the storm hit, Fujian province in China canceled all train services and issued the second-highest flood warning level.
The national water resources ministry warned on Wednesday that unusually heavy rains were anticipated to swell rivers and lakes in Fujian and the neighboring province of Zhejiang.
Clean-up activities began Thursday in the Philippines’ capital, Manila, as homeowners and business owners dumped saturated mattresses, garbage bags, and other trash on muddy streets.
Zenaida Cuerda, 55, a street vendor, claimed the food she was selling was washed away, and her Manila home was inundated.
“All my capital is gone,” Cuerda told AFP. “I have nothing now, that’s my only livelihood.”
The region experiences frequent tropical storms from July to October but experts say climate change has increased their intensity, leading to heavy rains, flash floods and strong gusts.