TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The most powerful typhoon of the year swept through the Luzon Strait separating the Philippines and Taiwan on Saturday, battering island communities and dumping rain as it eyed landfall in Hong Kong.
Typhoon Usagi had maximum sustained winds of 222 kilometers per hour (139 miles per hour) and gusts exceeding 260 kph (163 mph) Saturday morning, and was 550 kilometers (342 miles) south of Taipei, Taiwan's capital, according to the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said Usagi was veering west, likely sparing southern Taiwan from the most destructive winds near its eye.
But gusts exceeding 230 kph (144 mph) were recorded on the Taiwan island of Lanyu, and the bureau warned that dangerous winds were buffeting the holiday resort of Kending on the Hengchun peninsula as the storm makes its closest approach to the area.
In the Philippines, Usagi triggered landslides and power outages in parts of the north of the country, including the Batanes island group, where it made landfall early Saturday. No casualties have been reported.
The government's weather bureau warned that storm surges and heavy waves could cause damage in the Batanes and other islands in the Luzon Strait before Usagi blows past the Philippines on Saturday night.