World
Southern Taiwan Reels from Super Typhoon Meranti's Devastation
Typhoon Meranti slammed into southeastern China in what has been described as the strongest storm of the year globally.
Port staff check the damaged bridge cranes in Kaohsiung, southeast China's Taiwan. Kaohsiung Port saw facilities damage due to the effect of Typhoon Meranti, Sept. 15.
The storm, registered as a super typhoon before losing strength after sweeping across southern Taiwan, made landfall in the early hours near the major city of Xiamen. Dozens of flights and train services have been canceled, state television said, disrupting travel at the start of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.
Pictures on state media showed flooded streets, fallen trees and crushed cars in Xiamen as rescuers in boats evacuated people. About 320,000 homes were without power in Xiamen. Across the whole of Fujian province, where Xiamen is located, 1.65 million homes had no electricity.
A man rides through a flooded street after Typhoon Meranti made landfall on southeastern China, in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China.
Tens of thousands of people had already been evacuated as the storm approached and fishing boats called back to port. One person died and 38 were injured in Taiwan, the Central Emergency Operation Centre there said, as the typhoon hit the southern part of the island on Wednesday.
Meranti was a Category 5 typhoon, the strongest classification awarded by Tropical Storm Risk storm tracker, before it made landfall on the mainland and has since been downgraded to Category 2.
Residents clean up a flooded street in Xiamen, in China's eastern Fujian province after Typhoon Meranti. Parts of Taiwan came to a standstill on Sept. 15 as super typhoon Meranti brought the strongest winds in 21 years, while China issued a red alert for waves as the storm bore down on the mainland.
Residents are evacuated onto a military armored vehicle in Taiwan's southern Pingtung county on Sept. 14, 2016. Parts of Taiwan were brought to a standstill Wednesday as super typhoon Meranti skirted past the island's southern tip, bringing the strongest winds in 21 years and disrupting traffic ahead of a major holiday.
