Nearly 3,000 people in Taiwan have been evacuated due to the approaching Typhoon Haikui. It is expected to make landfall in the eastern part of Taiwan at 5 p.m. local time (11 a.m. Dutch time) on Sunday. It is the first tropical storm in four years to hit the island directly.
Taiwan’s interior ministry said authorities evacuated more than 2,800 people in seven cities as a precaution, most of them from the mountainous region of Hualien. In a statement, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-Wen urged people to stay indoors as much as possible and not to go to the mountains or to the coast.
“The waves on the coast are slowly getting bigger and bigger. Please don’t go to the beach to watch the waves or play in the water, let alone engage in dangerous activities,” Tsai said.
Flights cancelled
Haikui has a sustained wind speed of about 140 kilometers per hour. The typhoon brought heavy rainfall to the area on Sunday morning. Schools and offices in the southern and eastern parts of Taiwan have been closed and more than 200 domestic flights have been cancelled. The army has mobilized soldiers and equipment around the parts of the island where Haikui is expected to have the heaviest impact.
The last major storm to hit Taiwan was Typhoon Bailu in 2019, which killed one person. Haikui is expected to be less damaging than Typhoon Saola, which hit Hong Kong and southern China earlier this week. Dozens of people were injured there. Taiwan itself was not affected by Saola.
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