Deadly typhoon hits Taiwan, 9 sailors missing after ship sinks

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in eight years killed three people and flooded parts of the island’s second-biggest city on Thursday, while rescuers searched for nine sailors missing after their cargo ship sank in the storm.

Typhoon Gaemi transformed streets in southern Kaohsiung City into rivers, with some households flooded by rainwater. Schools and offices were closed in several cities for a second day, with the stock market suspended and thousands of people evacuated.

Gaemi also exacerbated seasonal rains in the Philippines on its path to Taiwan, triggering flooding and landslides that killed 20 people. A tanker carrying 1.4 million liters of oil sank off Manila on Thursday, with authorities racing to contain a spill.

The storm had weakened by Thursday morning and “the center has moved out to sea” at around 4:20 a.m. (2020 GMT), Taiwan’s weather authorities said.

Taiwan’s fire agency said it received a report early Thursday that a cargo ship had sunk off the island’s southwestern coast, forcing its nine Myanmar crew members to abandon ship in life jackets.

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“They fell into the sea and were floating there,” said Hsiao Huan-chang, head of the fire agency, adding that rescuers contacted a nearby Taiwanese cargo ship to assist them.

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Hsiao did not specify when the Tanzania-flagged ship sank but said the rescue vessel arrived in the area at 8:35 a.m. (0035 GMT).

“(When the Taiwanese ship arrived) the visibility at the scene was very low and the winds were too strong,” he told reporters.

Rescue aircraft took off from Kaohsiung and arrived at the scene at 3:30 pm (0730 GMT), a National Fire Agency official told a later briefing, and the search was ongoing.

READ:  Taiwan sees flooding and landslides from Typhoon Gaemi

Mudslides, falling trees

In Pingtung county, an Indonesian freighter had to be anchored at a beach during the storm, with local TV footage showing massive waves crashing into it. Taiwan’s Coast Guard said the crew was safe, “with no loss of power and oil leakage.”

Gaemi made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday night with sustained wind speeds of 190 kilometres (118 miles) per hour at its peak.

At least three people were confirmed killed and as many as 3,300 reported injured.

A motorist in Kaohsiung was crushed by a tree and a woman in eastern Hualien died after part of a building fell on her.

Authorities said later on Thursday a third person was killed when mudslides hit two houses in Kaohsiung, trapping two people. A woman was rescued from one but the second person was found dead.

Taiwan’s defense ministry also announced Thursday that its annual Han Kuang war games, in which some drills had already been cancelled due to the weather, had ended a day early and troops sent to help local governments with disaster rescue work instead.

Hundreds of domestic and international flights were cancelled again because of the storm.

Flood warnings

Gaemi is now tracking towards China’s Fujian province, which suspended all train services and put in place the second-highest flood warning alert level.

READ: Typhoon Gaemi weakens as it leaves Taiwan for China

The national water resources ministry warned on Wednesday that extremely heavy rains were expected to swell rivers and lakes in Fujian and the neighbouring province of Zhejiang.

In the Philippines, clean-up efforts were under way Thursday in the capital Manila as residents and business owners dumped soaked mattresses, bags of rubbish and other debris on muddy streets.

Street vendor Zenaida Cuerda, 55, said the food she had been selling had washed away and her house in the capital was flooded.

“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.

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