Taiwan shuts down ahead of Typhoon Champi, with nearly 1,000 flights canceled

Almost all of Taiwan shut down Friday ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Champi, which is forecast to bring strong winds and torrential rain, and though the storm is weakening it could still make direct landfall on the island.

At one point a super typhoon and one of the strongest storms in the Pacific this year, Champi was still packing gusts of around 119 mph near its center, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration (CWA).

The storm was about 137 miles east of Taiwan, the CWA said. The storm’s forecast track shows it will pass just off northeastern Taiwan, turn north toward the Chinese coast and eventually move into southern Japan.

One person was killed and 94 were injured in Taiwan, where the government said almost 1,300 people had been evacuated from mountainous areas.

CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng told Reuters that landfall could not be ruled out if it “stalls, loops or wobbles from side to side” on approach to Taiwan.

“The storm’s wind radius is quite large, among the bigger ones in recent years,” Liu said. “If the storm slows down, the strong winds will affect Taiwan for longer.”

Coastal towns received mobile phone alerts warning of gusts exceeding…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/world