Typhoon slams Taiwan, triggering floods, slides

updated 8:32 a.m. ET July 28, 2008

TAIPEI, Taiwan - A powerful typhoon lashed Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rains Monday, disrupting air traffic and triggering landslides and floods that killed at least one man in the southeastern part of the island.

Typhoon Fung Wong hit Taiwan just before dawn, packing winds of 105 miles per hour. It left the island, heading for the Chinese mainland, about nine hours later.

Television images showed rescue personnel wading through waist-deep waters to extricate people from their homes in Hualien in eastern Taiwan, where the typhoon made landfall.

A man drowned when he slipped into a flooded rice paddy in Taitung County in southeast Taiwan, the disaster relief center said.

Authorities evacuated more than 1,000 isolated villagers and barred traffic at low lying, vulnerable bridges, the center said. They provided 300 pumping machines to move water out of flooded areas, it added.

An unidentified village chief in Nantou County in central Taiwan told Sanlih Television that rampaging flood waters had reached a mountain village, prompting some 1,000 people to prepare to evacuate.

Deserted streets
In normally bustling Taipei, streets were deserted after authorities ordered businesses, banks and the local stock exchange to close.

The city's domestic airport was shut down, but at the international airport in suburban Taoyuan county some long-haul and regional flights using larger aircraft were still taking off and landing normally, according to the Taoyuan airport's Web site.

The state-run Taiwan Power company said more than 43,000 homes had lost power around the island and several roads were blocked by landslides.

The storm dumped more than 26 inches of rain in Hualien. It is expected to make landfall on the southeastern Chinese coast early Tuesday, the Central Weather Bureau said.

Fung Wong hit Taiwan just a week after tropical storm Kalmaegi killed 19 people and left six others missing on the island.

Typhoons frequently hit Taiwan between July and September, often causing casualties in mountainous regions prone to landslides and flash floods.

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