Typhoon Gaemi roared into southeastern China on Thursday after churning across the Taiwan Strait, prompting warnings of swelling rivers, flash floods and waterlogging in cities and provinces that were hit by extreme rains just several weeks ago.
Gaemi swept up the western Pacific, intensifying seasonal rains earlier in the week in the Philippines, where the death toll climbed to 22.
Called Carina in the Philippines, the storm did not make landfall in the archipelago but intensified its seasonal monsoon rains.
Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos jnr ordered authorities to speed up efforts to deliver food and other aid to isolated rural villages.
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“People there may not have eaten for days,” he said in a televised emergency meeting.
In the densely populated region around the capital Manila, government work and school classes were suspended after rains flooded many areas.
A marine tanker carrying industrial fuel sank in rough seas off the Philippines, causing the death of a crew member and an oil spill that could spread to waters off Manila, officials said.
Officials were investigating whether the sinking is related to Gaemi, which on Wednesday flooded swathes of the capital Manila and surrounding towns.
“There is already oil spill. Right now, we cannot dispatch our resources because of strong winds and high waves,” transportation secretary Jaime Bautista told a situation briefing.
The ship was carrying 1,494 tonnes of industrial fuel, Mr Bautista said.
Philippine coast guard spokesperson Armando Balilo told a separate briefing a 97m coast guard vessel had been deployed to combat the oil spill.
An aerial survey by the coast guard showed an oil slick spreading roughly two nautical miles and being driven by strong waves.
“We are racing against time. We will do our best to contain the fuel,” Mr Balilo said.
He added the waters where the ship sank is close to Manila and there is “big danger” the spill could reach the capital.
Gaemi, the third and most powerful typhoon to hit China’s eastern seaboard this year, made landfall in Fujian province at 11.5am Irish time on Thursday after whipping Taiwan with gusts of up to 227km/h, some of the strongest winds recorded in the western Pacific.
Ahead of its arrival, 240,800 people in Fujian were evacuated.
Despite slightly weakening since its landfall in Fujian’s city of Putian, a city of over 3 million, Gaemi and its giant cloud-bands are forecast to unleash intense rainfall in at least 10 Chinese provinces in the coming days.
The arrival of Gaemi has drawn comparisons with Typhoon Doksuri last year, which triggered historic flooding as far north as Beijing and caused nationwide losses of nearly €27 billion.
Authorities said water levels in the lower reaches of the Yangtze river as well as the vast freshwater lakes of Poyang and Dongting in central China could rise, returning to dangerous levels seen in early July after intense summer rains.
Due to its high vapour content, Beijing cautioned that Gaemi could spawn strong rainfall in the Chinese capital, about 2,000km north of Putian, even as the storm weakens into a tropical depression.
Gaemi’s rains could cause flash floods and waterlogging particularly in parts of northern China where the soil remains saturated after being lashed by a passing system of storms earlier this week, authorities warned.
In Taiwan, Gaemi killed three people, sank a freighter ship and triggered flooding after the strongest typhoon to hit the island in eight years made landfall on Wednesday night.
Some parts of southern Taiwan are expected to have recorded rainfall of 2.2m since Tuesday. The storm cut power to around half a million households, though most are now back online, utility TaiPower said.
Apart from the three fatalities, 380 were injured by the typhoon in Taiwan, the government said.
Taiwan’s fire department said a Tanzania-flagged freighter with nine Myanmar nationals on board had sunk off the coast of the southern port city of Kaohsiung.
Three of them have since been found alive on the shoreline, Taiwan’s coast guard said.
Taiwanese television stations showed pictures of flooded streets in cities and counties across the island.
Li Li-chuan (55) saw the roof of her restaurant blow off in the northeastern Taiwanese city of Suao.
“I was frightened,” she told Reuters. “It was the strongest in years. I was worried that the roof would hit other people.”
Offices and schools as well as the financial markets closed for a second day on Thursday, while trains were stopped until 7am Irish time and all domestic flights and 195 international flights were cancelled. – AP/Reuters