Even as Taiwan had been preparing for Typhoon Talim since Monday, with the central government coordinating with village heads to evacuate low lying regions, the storm has now moved away from the island nation and is on course to hit China and Japan. While Taiwan is now unlikely to see a large-scale devastation, Taipei and other cities will reportedly still receive heavy rainfall.
In preparation, numerous flights to and from Taiwan had been cancelled earlier and residents had been urged to move to safer regions. Meanwhile, this situation is now being faced by Japan, which has already begun witnessing the rage of Talim.
Japan's Southern Ryukyu Islands have already received heavy rainfall with strong winds of up to 179 km per hour at sea and gusts of up to 209 km per hour, reported Reuters. The Okinawa prefecture had started preparation for the storm on Tuesday and 90 flights and about 224 ships had been cancelled in the region.
This weather condition has brought with it massive power outages in the island – about 16,700 homes are without electricity -- and numerous trees were seen uprooted in the region. "We will start recovery work as soon as the wind and rain dies down," Weather.com quoted Okinawa Electric Power as saying.
Meanwhile, Talim is also likely to hit China and is said to be 500 km southeast of Zhejiang province on Wednesday. The typhoon is expected to make a landfall on Thursday evening or early Friday morning. However, experts believe that Talim could change its course and the "last-minute" and give China a miss altogether.
Nevertheless, over 1,20,000 people have been evacuated in the Zhejiang and Fujian provinces and 2,000 tourist spots have also been closed before the storm, reported Xinhua. Fujian's meteorological department has said that Talim could intensify into a super typhoon with winds of about 200 km per hour.
"The areas to be affected by Talim are the most economically developed regions in our nation's eastern coastline with large cities, high population density, tall buildings and plenty of industrial infrastructure," the agency quoted an expert panel as saying.
China seems to have more concerns to deal with as Talim is not the only typhoon swamping the country. Another typhoon Doksuri has formed to the west of Philippines and is moving towards the Hainan province. Doksuri is likely to make a landfall almost during the same time that Talim is unleashing its fury on China, reported South China Morning Post.
