POWERFUL TYPHOON IN TAIWAN CRIPPLES THE ISLAND'S MAJOR TRANSPORTATION

TAIPEI, Taiwan - A powerful typhoon ripped into Taiwan on Sunday, crippling major transportation around the island and shutting off power as thousands of residents fled mountainous areas prone to devastating landslides.
Typhoon Fanapi was the first major storm to strike the island this year and was forecast to move into eastern China early Monday.

• It made landfall in Taiwan's eastern city of Hualien at 8:40 a.m. (0040 GMT) with winds of 102 mph (162 kph). By afternoon its winds had weakened to 89 mph (144 kph) as the storm churned westward at 12 mph (20 kph), the Central Weather Bureau said.
• The bureau said as much as 24 inches (619 millimetres) of rain had been dumped in southern Taiwan with much more to come. TV footage showed some streets in the southern counties of Kaohsiung and Pingtung inundated with water.
• Officials evacuated 6,000 residents from remote areas vulnerable to landslides, half of them in the southern part of the island, according to Taiwan's Central Emergency Operation Centre.
• The centre also said 45 people were injured. Some were cut by broken glass and others hurt when they fell off motorcycles in strong winds.
• Landslides caused by torrential rains are traditionally the greatest danger the typhoons bring to this island of 23 million people, which is riven by a series of tall mountains and narrow valleys dotted with hundreds of isolated farming communities.
• Taiwan's China Airlines suspended all international departures from the southern city of Kaohsiung, and other airlines, including Hong Kong's Dragon Air and China Eastern canceled scheduled flights to regional destinations from Taipei.
• All of Taiwan's domestic air and rail service was halted.
• Officials said seven inter-county roads in central and southern Taiwan were closed because of safety concerns, and another 18 were blocked.
• Taiwan's government has deployed thousands of emergency workers and military personnel throughout the island to try to mitigate damage, mindful of the estimated 700 deaths caused by Typhoon Morakot last year.
• Following that disaster, President Ma Ying-jeou's approval rating collapsed, and he was forced to replace many of his senior ministers.
• On Sunday, TV footage showed landslides blocking a road in central Taiwan, and floods partially submerging a bridge in Kaohsiung, while troops worked against the clock to build dikes near a rain-swollen river in nearby Pingtung.
• The Taiwan Power Company said in a statement 170,000 Taiwanese households had lost electricity as of Sunday morning.
• Fanapi was expected to hit China's eastern province of Fujian on Monday morning as either a typhoon or a tropical storm.
• The Fujian provincial water resources department said that by noon Sunday, 186,700 people had been evacuated.
• "Fanapi is the strongest typhoon to hit Fujian in 2010 and we should prepare for the worst," Sun Chunlan, Communist Party chief of Fujian, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Authorities in the province have evacuated about 150,000 fishing crew and recalled 55,000 boats to shore.
An additional 6,000 elderly people, women and children living along the coast were also moved to safety, the water resources department said.
The National Meteorological Centre issued a "red alert" warning of strong winds and heavy rains in the area where the storm makes landfall.

Source: The Star, AP