UpdateTyphoon Soudelor hurtles towards China after leaving death and destruction in Taiwan

Typhoon Soudelor barrelled towards the mainland yesterday after downing trees, traffic lights and power lines in Taiwan, where at least six people were killed, four left missing and dozens injured. A total of 185 people were hurt in Taiwan and more than three million households lost electricity as the powerful storm left streets strewn with fallen trees. All 279 domestic flights were cancelled yesterday, as well as at least 37 international flights. Rivers broke their banks under torrential rain and towering waves pounded the island’s coastline. An 8-year-old girl and her mother died when they were swept out to sea in Yilan county on Thursday from a beach on the east coast. The girl’s twin sister remains missing and officials said the search for her would continue today. Another nine-year-old girl was injured but survived. Other casualties included a firefighter who was killed in southern Pintung county while a man in the coastal town of Suao died after he was hit by a falling billboard. Another man, aged 83, died after being buried in the mudslide. In mainland China, which faces Taiwan across a narrow strait, at least 250,000 people were evacuated from the coastal provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang ahead of the typhoon’s arrival which was forecast for Saturday evening. Already, strong winds and heavy rain have cut off power and destroyed farm crops along China’s eastern coast, state media reported. The typhoon has also dumped more than 200 millimetres of rain in just over 24 hours in some areas along China’s eastern coast. “The tap water has stopped. The electricity is out. I’m hiding at home and scared to go outside,” housewife Pan Danyun, who lives in Fujian’s Fuzhou city, said. China’s National Meteorological Centre predicted Soudelor would make landfall on Saturday evening in Fujian, somewhere in a band roughly between the cities of Fuzhou and Xiamen. Late on Saturday afternoon, the typhoon was still around 125 kilometres from Fujian, it said. Chinese forecasts show it moving inland to the central province of Jiangxi after making landfall. "When it makes landfall in Fujian, it will be significantly weaker, basically the strength of a typhoon or severe tropical storm,” the government agency’s chief forecaster Qian Chuanhai told state television. “Soudelor will continue to deteriorate as it makes a final landfall in China,” the US military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Centre said. “As the system tracks further inland it will erode rapidly.” The typhoon weakened later yesterday with top winds of up to 144 km/h as it moved away from the island in a northwesterly direction. However, strong winds and heavy rain are expected to continue in Taiwan. The centre of the storm made landfall in eastern Taiwan at 4.40am yesterday. By mid-morning, Soudelor was packing maximum sustained winds of 162km/h, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said. It first hit the town of Hsiulin in eastern Hualien county before zigzagging across the centre of the island. It swept across central Taiwan, ripping up trees, snapping wind turbines and triggering a landslide in one remote village in the northern region of Taoyuan. All of the villagers had been evacuated in advance as torrential rains left some areas waist-deep in water. Dramatic images showed an elderly man who was buried up to his waist in another mudslide being hauled out by emergency workers in the picturesque hot spring area of Wulai, just outside the capital Taipei. PHOTO GALLERY: Typhoon's wrath - Soudelor leaves a trail of destruction One mountain village in Taoyuan was left almost submerged in mud. “Flash mudslides surged into the village. About 10 of the homes were half buried but people were evacuated last night and are in safe shelters,” a spokesman for Taoyuan fire agency said. Thousands have been evacuated, with 1,300 people in temporary shelters across the island. All schools and workplaces were shut on Saturday. Tatung township in eastern Yilan saw the most rain, with more than a metre falling since Thursday. There was widespread flooding across the county after coastal homes were hit by towering waves. “I’ve never seen such a powerful typhoon in my 60 years of life,” one elderly woman in eastern Taitung told Taiwan's Formosa TV. The strongest winds were in Suao, where gusts reached 237 kilometres per hour, the weather bureau said. At least 80 international flights have been cancelled and high-speed rail services were halted. As the storm moved west it snapped turbines and brought down 65-metre-high towers at a wind farm in Taichung, images on the Apple Daily website showed. More than 4,000 people were evacuated as the storm approached, including 2,000 tourists who were pulled out of the popular outlying Green Island and Orchid Island. Many of those evacuated are from remote mountain villages in the east, where troops moved out residents on Friday and helped secure their homes. On the mainland, Chinese authorities are taking no chances. More than 300 trains linked to Fujian have been cancelled, while China’s three biggest airlines have also scrapped more than 60 domestic flights. China’s eastern province of Fujian evacuated at least 158,000 people and called more than 60,000 fishing boats back to harbour as the typhoon approached, according to the provincial government. Fujian’s provincial capital Fuzhou cancelled cross-strait ferries to Taiwan, the local government said. On Friday afternoon, marine police rescued 55 university students and teachers trapped on a small island where they had been attending a summer camp after gales stopped ferry services, Xinhua reported. In Shanghai, people showed mixed feelings towards Soudelor. Some were worried it would spoil weekend plans, while others hoped it could help cool the scorching weather. The local weather forecasters said earlier this week that Shanghai would not receive a direct hit. Soudelor -- named after a legendary Micronesian chief -- is currently described as a “moderate typhoon” by the weather bureau -- the second highest category. Additional reporting by Associated Press

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Six die, four missing, 185 hurt and more than three million households lose electricity as Soudelor hits Taiwan before heading for mainland

Six die, four missing, 185 hurt and more than three million households lose electricity as Soudelor hits Taiwan before heading for mainland