Hundreds of people have been evacuated in southern Taiwan as the island braces for the impact of the strongest storm of the year.
Super Typhoon Meranti is barreling down on Taiwan, bringing wind speeds of up to 230 miles per hour (370 kph), faster than a Formula One race car, and torrential rains.
Schools and offices across the south of the island have closed and dozens of flights have been canceled, according to the official China News Agency.
Four people have been injured, and more than 70,000 households have lost power in counties across southern Taiwan, according to the Taiwan Red Cross.
As of 7 a.m. local time Wednesday morning, around 1,500 people had been evacuated from the affected areas, Li Wei-sen, of the Taiwan Central Emergency Operating Center, told CNN.
Almost 4,000 military and police personnel have been deployed to the region to prepare for potential future evacuations, but he said authorities are not expecting major damage or destruction.
Super typhoon
After a period of rapid intensification Monday and Tuesday, which saw Meranti grow from a Category 1 equivalent storm to that of a top-scale Category 5 in only 24 hours, the super typhoon has maintained winds of 190 mph (305 kph) for nearly 24 hours.
With current gusts of up to 230 mph (370 kph), Meranti is the strongest typhoon since Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines in 2013 and is the strongest storm to come this close to Taiwan since 1959.
The storm is nearing the southern tip of Taiwan, and though its eye may pass a few miles south of the island, dangerous typhoon-force winds greater than 74 mph (120 kph) extend nearly 80 miles (125 km), and will cover much of Southern Taiwan.
From there the storm will track through toward the northwest and move into mainland China.
Bracing for impact
Taiwan is home to roughly 23 million people. Most of the population lives on the northern and western side of the island, but even though Meranti is passing the southern edge of Taiwan, it is such a powerful storm that the entire island will feel its wrath.
The tropical storm-force wind field from Meranti stretches more than 350 miles (560 km) from one end to the other and is much broader than Taiwan itself, which is only about 230 miles long.
Dangerous winds, however, are only one of the potentially devastating forces Meranti will unleash on Taiwan and then mainland China. Torrential rainfall, which frequently accumulates to over 3 feet (1 meter) in mountainous central Taiwan during typhoons, can produce deadly flash floods and devastating mudslides.
Taiwan’s storms
Taiwan, despite being a frequent target for powerful Pacific typhoons, has a very good track record of limiting the storms’ deadly impacts. But as storms move into the mainland, they often turn deadlier. The flatter terrain — prone to storm surges and inland flooding — and higher population density often result in higher numbers of people killed or misplaced by the storm.
This was the case with a similar storm, Super Typhoon Nepartak, which hit in almost the same location as where Meranti is forecast to travel. Nepartak, which made landfall on July 8, caused at least three deaths in Taiwan and cut power to over half a million, but became much deadlier as it moved into mainland China.
Despite weakening to a tropical storm as it hit mainland China, Nepartak and its associated heavy rainfall of up to 10 inches (254 mm) killed more than 80 people. Meranti is expected to be much stronger than Nepartak when it hits mainland China, with winds around 130 mph (210 kph), which would make it equivalent to a major Category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico.
A combination of very warm western Pacific ocean waters and weak upper level winds have allowed Meranti (pronounced me-run-ti) to undergo what meteorologists call “rapid intensification.”
Meranti went from 85 mph (140 kph) on Sunday to a sustained 180 mph (285 kph) on Monday afternoon. This presents great challenges to forecasters and disaster management officials, as it can quickly up the ante when it comes to the storm’s expected impact.