A tanker and a cargo ship sank and three other vessels were stranded as Typhoon Gaemi crossed Taiwan, bringing torrential rains and strong winds to the island, causing widespread flooding and leaving three people dead.
Philippine authorities were scrambling to contain an oil spill after a tanker carrying 1.4 million liters of crude oil capsized in Manila Bay. The Terra Nova was heading to Iloilo City when it sank about seven kilometers off the coast of Limay city in Bataan province early Thursday morning.
One of the 17 crew members is still missing, and a coast guard spokesman said they were “racing against time” to contain the kilometre-long oil spill. Spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Barilo said if all the oil was out it would be the biggest spill in Philippine history and threaten the coastline of the capital, Manila.
Authorities have not made any direct link between the capsizing and the typhoon that passed through the area on Wednesday bringing heavy rains and high waves, but are investigating “whether there was already weather disturbance in the nearby waters.”
Meanwhile, bad weather off Taiwan’s southeast coast is hampering search and rescue efforts after the Tanzanian-flagged cargo ship Fushun was hit by rough seas and nine Myanmar crew members fell overboard, Taiwanese authorities told the Guardian. A distress call was sent out at about 6:30 a.m. on Thursday saying the ship was sinking.
Three other ships also ran aground during the storm. The Indonesian-flagged Iriana ran aground in Pingtung shortly after raising anchor after repairing its rudder. Authorities said all 20 crew members were safe and there was no risk of an oil leak. The Portuguese-flagged Sofia ran aground off Tainan and the Mongolian-flagged Vasia also ran aground in Pingtung. Taiwanese authorities said the crew were safe or waiting to be rescued.
Gaemi According to the Taiwan Meteorological Bureau, the typhoon passed off the coast of Taiwan around midnight local time on Thursday and hit Yilan county in eastern Taiwan as a super typhoon.
Authorities said the typhoon unleashed heavy rain and strong winds across Taiwan before it hit, killing a scooter rider who was crushed by a fallen tree in the southern city of Kaohsiung, a woman who was killed when a wall collapsed on her car in eastern Hualien, and a district leader in New Taipei who was driving an excavator that overturned.
By Wednesday evening, more than 270 people had been injured and more than 290,000 homes had been plunged into darkness due to power outages, disaster officials said. Nearly 170 floods had also been reported, with the waters still not receding in most areas. “Winds and rain continue to strengthen, posing a threat to many parts of Taiwan,” the official said. [and its outlying islands of] Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu… [the public should] Please remain on high alert.”
Gami, the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan this year, is expected to be the strongest typhoon in eight years, according to Taiwan government forecasters.
By 8pm on Wednesday, authorities had evacuated more than 8,500 at-risk residents across Taiwan, particularly in Hualien, a mountainous area at high risk of landslides.
Trains and ferries were halted and hundreds of international and domestic flights were cancelled. Workplaces and schools were closed across much of the island on Wednesday and crowds flocked to supermarkets. People booked karaoke rooms, a sort of social custom when the government declares a typhoon watch day.
On the Penghu islands west of Taiwan’s main island, weather caused the cancellation of part of the annual Han Kuang military exercises – which test readiness to face a Chinese invasion – but the anti-landing drills went ahead as scheduled on Wednesday morning.
“The effects of the typhoon are expected to last for four days. [until Friday]”Taiwan’s Meteorological Bureau director-general Cheng Chiaping said:
Authorities expect the bad weather to continue across Taiwan, with schools and offices in several cities, including Taipei, set to be closed for a second consecutive day.
In the capital Taipei, government offices were closed, roads were deserted and sandbags were piled over the entrances of some shops to protect against flooding.
Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest silicon chip maker, said it was maintaining normal production and had “activated normal typhoon warning preparation procedures” at all its fabs.
Earlier, landslides killed six people in provinces surrounding Manila, Philippine police and disaster management authorities said.
Gami was expected to cross the strait and hit the eastern Chinese provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian, prompting authorities to issue red storm warnings and put the country on the highest level of emergency preparedness. All passenger train services in Fujian were suspended from Thursday to Friday, state media said. Offshore construction projects were evacuated and ships were sent back to shore.
In Japan, meteorological authorities in southern Okinawa prefecture urged residents to “exercise high vigilance” against strong winds, high waves and flooding.
Tropical storms are common in Taiwan between July and October, but experts say climate change is making the storms more intense, bringing heavy rain, flash floods and strong winds and increasing the likelihood of landslides.
Human-induced climate disruption is increasing the occurrence of the most intense and destructive tropical cyclones (though the annual total globally remains unchanged), as warming oceans provide more energy and create more powerful storms.
As warmer air holds more water vapor, the amount of extreme rainfall from tropical storms has increased significantly. For example, the amount of rainfall from Hurricane Harvey that struck Texas in 2017 would have been nearly impossible without record ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico.
Coastal storm surges are also becoming higher and more damaging due to rising sea levels caused by climate change. For example, the devastating storm surge caused by Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines in 2013 was 20% higher Due to human-induced climate disruption.
Agence France-Presse
