Taiwan evacuates thousands ahead of tropical storm Fung-wong which left 25 dead in the Philippines

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan evacuated more than 3,000 people from vulnerable areas and closed schools and offices on Tuesday ahead of the arrival of tropical storm Fung-wong, which killed at least 25 people and displaced more than 1.4 million in the Philippines.

Fung-wong was earlier classified as a typhoon but is losing intensity as it approaches Taiwan, where it is expected to make landfall Wednesday afternoon or evening near the southwestern port city of Kaohsiung.

On Tuesday morning, the storm had maximum sustained winds of up to 108 kph (67 mph) and gusts of 137 kph (85 mph) and is expected to sweep across the island and exit from its northeastern side Wednesday evening or early Thursday, Taiwan’s weather agency said.

More than 3,300 people from four counties and cities have been evacuated near the eastern township of Guangfu, where flooding from a typhoon in September caused a barrier lake to overflow, killing 18 people.

Schools and offices were closed on Tuesday in Hualien and Yilan counties, while weather authorities issued a land warning covering south and southwestern areas including Kaohsiung, Pingtung County, Tainan and Taitung.

China activated an emergency typhoon response for its southeastern provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Hainan.

Fung-wong slammed into the Philippines’ northeastern coast from the Pacific on Sunday as a super typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 185 kph (115 mph) and gusts of up to 230 kph (143 mph). The 1,800-kilometer (1,100-mile)-wide storm killed at least 18 people in flash floods and landslides in several northern provinces.

More than a million people remained displaced Tuesday, including about 803,000 sheltering in 11,000 evacuation centers across the northern Luzon region, Office of Civil Defense deputy director Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said.

The dead included 19 who mostly died in landslides in the Cordillera, a six-province and sparsely populated mountain region long vulnerable to land- and mudslides during the rainy season that starts in June, Alejandro and provincial officials said, adding two villagers remain missing in the region.

The others died due to flash floods, exposed electrical wires and a collapsed house, they said and added that 29 were injured in the onslaught.

Among the dead were three children whose houses were buried in two separate landslides in the mountainous province of Nueva Vizcaya that injured four others, while a landslide in nearby Kalinga province killed two villagers, officials said.

“It’s not mass casualty in one place,” Alejandro said Tuesday, adding several people were killed in separate landslides.

The Philippines and Taiwan are battered each year by several typhoons and storms and are also in a region vulnerable to earthquakes.

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Gomez reported from Manila, Philippines