A typhoon that approached China on Thursday caused severe flooding. More than 20 people have died this week. Philippines and TaiwanThe typhoon, named Gaemi by the Japan Meteorological Agency and Karina by the Philippine Weather Bureau, was the strongest to hit Taiwan in eight years, according to Reuters..
66 inches of rain falls in floods in Philippines and Taiwan
In Taiwan, the typhoon brought heavy rains, dumping several feet of rain in mountainous areas. As of Thursday evening, 66.16 inches (5.51 feet) of rain had fallen on Tanalin Island and 58.05 inches on Weiliao Mountain over the past three days.
Taiwan’s financial markets, government offices and schools remained closed on Thursday.A cargo ship with nine people on board sank 20 miles off the coast of Taiwan on Thursday in rough seas, fire officials said.
While the typhoon did not directly affect the Philippines, its moisture caused extensive flooding in the archipelago. The Philippine Coast Guard reported being inundated with flood rescue requests from residents in the capital, Manila. Footage taken in Quezon City, Philippines on Wednesday showed a barge crashing into a bridge over a flooded river.
The Philippine Coast Guard said an oil tanker carrying more than one million liters of oil capsized off the coast of Bataan early Tuesday and that the coast guard was monitoring a 2.3-mile oil spill resulting from the incident.
Get the forecast from AccuWeather
A typhoon moves over China today
The powerful tropical storm, Gaemi, a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, entered China’s Fujian province on Thursday night before moving inland, continuing to dump flooding rains.
Typhoon loops
Earlier this week, Typhoon Gaemi was a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. On Wednesday, the storm looped on its path, approaching the coast of Taiwan, skimming the coast and moving east before turning around and making landfall just before midnight as a Category 3. The looping was caused by an interaction with the mountains of Taiwan, Storms are not uncommon in this area.“Weather is very vigilant about the climate,” said Jason Nichols, AccuWeather’s chief international expert.
“Gaemi’s looped path is due to a topographical obstacle that deflected it away from Taiwan’s mountainous coast, creating asymmetric currents at the storm’s center,” Nichols explained. Eventually, the storm will return to a trajectory similar to its previous path.
