Typhoon Longwang Hits Taiwan, Injuring 34; Flights Cancelled Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Typhoon Longwang lashed Taiwan today with winds gusting up to 191 kph (119 mph), injuring at least 34 people and disrupting air and rail services. The storm may reach China's mainland as early as tomorrow.
The eye of the typhoon landed at Feng-ping, a town in the eastern coastal county of Hualien, at 5:15 a.m. local time, the Central Weather Bureau said on its Web site. The center of Longwang was about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the central city of Taichung at 8 a.m. local time today, the bureau said.
China Airlines and EVA Airways Corp., Taiwan's two largest carriers, have cancelled all domestic and international flights while almost all rail services have been suspended, the Ministry of Interior said on its Web site. More than 212,000 households have no power supply and about 4,100 mainland Chinese sailors have sought shelter in the island's protected harbors, it said.
The typhoon, named after Chinese mythology's god of rain, dumped as much as 423 millimeters (17 inches) of water in the highlands of northern Taiwan, the Cabinet's Council of Agriculture said in a statement. Yesterday, the council issued mudslide warnings and flood alerts for 354 rivers in nine counties.
Longwang, the 19th-named storm of the Western Pacific typhoon season, is heading west-northwest toward China, slowing to 18 kph from about 25 kph yesterday, the weather bureau said. It has slowed to a typhoon from a supertyphoon with winds falling from gusts of as much as 227 kph, it said.
To contact the reporter on this story: James Peng in Taipei at jpeng7@bloomberg.net