Further north from Donghe, workers ferried massive blocks to a coastal highway that had partially collapsed from the force of waves slamming into it, hoping that the concrete structures would absorb the impact.
Haikui – the first typhoon landfall in Taiwan in four years – forced the evacuation of more than 7,000 people across the island, particularly from landslide-prone mountainous regions. Hundreds of flights were cancelled and businesses were closed.
More than 217,000 households temporarily lost power through the day. By Monday morning, 58,000 homes still had no electricity, while schools and businesses remained closed in 14 cities as torrential rain bucketed down.
A forecaster with Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said Haikui had initially appeared to move through the island and out to sea but made a second landfall in the southwestern coastal city of Kaohsiung at around 4am (2000 GMT, Sunday).
During the night “the centre of the typhoon was almost circling” Kaohsiung, but as it moved along the coastline “the structure of the typhoon is damaged by the terrain and gradually weakens”, she said.
Source: CNA
