Taiwan shuttered its schools and offices, evacuated thousands of people, grounded flights, closed financial markets, issued land and sea warnings and mobilized the military as it braced for Typhoon Kong-rey to make landfall on Thursday as one of the strongest storms to hit the island in 30 years.
Packing winds of up to 127 miles per hour, the approaching storm was forecast to hit as the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane along Taiwan’s eastern coast on Thursday, according to meteorologists.
According to the Ministry of the Interior of Taiwan, 8,600 people have been evacuated in nine cities and counties on the island as of Thursday morning.
“This typhoon is moving fast and will bring strong winds and heavy rain,” Cho Jung-tai, Taiwan’s premier, said on Facebook.
Kong-rey was in the Philippine Sea early on Thursday morning local time after skirting the northern Philippines, which was battered by Tropical Storm Trami last week. The Philippine government said on Wednesday that the two storms combined had killed at least 139 people and left at least 21 others missing.
All of Taiwan was under land and sea warnings early Thursday, according to the Central Weather Administration. Land warnings are issued when a typhoon’s sustained winds of at least 39 m.p.h. are predicted to hit within 18 hours, according to the agency. Sea warnings are issued when the typhoon’s radius of sustained winds of at least 34 knots, or 39 m.p.h., are expected to come within 100 kilometers, about 62 miles, of Taiwan’s coast within 24 hours.
As the typhoon traverses Taiwan, the mountains that run through the middle of the island are expected to weaken the storm, leaving the island’s eastern side to receive most of the rainfall.
But even after passing through Taiwan, Kong-rey is likely to remain a typhoon as it emerges over the Taiwan Strait and heads toward southern Japan and China, where it could make landfall again on Friday.
Weather advisories, including warnings for extremely heavy rain, stretched across Taiwan on Thursday. The Central Weather Administration reported that nearly four feet of rain is expected in mountainous eastern Taiwan.
As of Thursday morning, flights in Taiwan had been canceled because of Kong-rey. Some ferry services were suspended in southeastern Taiwan, and fishing boats were called to shore. In the eastern coastal city of Hualien, which was hit by a magnitude 7.4 earthquake in April, the authorities prepared supplies and vehicles to help evacuate people.
In Yilan, a northeastern county, strong winds and rain had arrived by early Wednesday. At Suao Port in Yilan, which is usually crowded with military and civilian ships, a few vessels were docked at the harbor.
The Taiwanese government has banned hikers from entering mountainous areas and has closed some parks in eastern scenic areas.
On social media, Taiwanese people expressed concern that such a powerful storm was arriving at the start of winter. Though typhoons happen all year, most storms in the western Pacific form from May to October.
Many fans of Mayday, a popular Taiwanese pop band, were dismayed after it canceled its concerts that had been scheduled for Friday and the weekend.
Kong-rey was spinning toward eastern Taiwan with picturesque shape and a large eye. Forecasters with the Joint Typhoon Warning Center cautioned that as the storm approaches the coast, it could become erratic, with changes in its forward speed and direction, and may weaken slightly before it makes landfall on Thursday.
Regardless of any weakening, Kong-rey will be a powerful storm as it nears Taiwan.
“Typhoon Kong-rey — a climatological freak,” an experienced typhoon chaser, James Reynolds, posted on social media. “Its track towards Taiwan and potential landfall intensity will make it a once in a generation (if not longer) storm.”
If Kong-rey makes landfall as the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane, it would be the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan this late in the year. According to Brian McNoldy, a researcher at the University of Miami, the latest typhoon equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane or stronger to hit Taiwan directly was Krosa on Oct. 6, 2007, which cut power to nearly half a million homes and disrupted air and sea traffic as it came ashore.
After making landfall in Taiwan, Kong-rey is expected to lessen in intensity as it churns travels toward China. China Meteorological Administration said that multiple provinces and cities in the southeast, including Shanghai, the country’s financial hub, will brace for heavy rains and winds on Friday through the weekend.
