Typhoon Gaemi strengthens as it nears Taiwan, two dead, work halted
Taiwan shuts financial markets, suspends work, school
More than 8,000 evacuated from high-risk landslide areas
Taiwan puts 29,000 soldiers on stand-by for relief efforts
Two people killed, 201 injured
TSMC expects normal factory production during typhoon
Updates casualty figures in paragraph 6; evacuation numbers, 11
By Yimou Lee
YILAN, Taiwan, July 24 (Reuters) -Taiwan hunkered down on Wednesday for the arrival of a strengthening Typhoon Gaemi, with financial markets shut, flights cancelled and two peoplekilled, while the military went on stand-by amid torrential rain.
Gaemi, expected to be the strongest storm to hit Taiwan in eight years, is set to make landfall on its east coast late on Wednesday evening, weather authorities said. Its eye was hovering off Hualien county as of 8 p.m. (1200GMT).
They upgraded Gaemi's status to a strong typhoon, packing gusts of up to 227 kph (141 mph) near its centre.
After crossing the Taiwan Strait, it is likely to hit the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian late on Thursday afternoon.
Financial markets will remain closed on Thursday, with work and school suspended for a second day, the government said.
Two people have been killed, the disaster management centre said - one bya falling tree and the other after part of a building fell on a car - and a further 201injured.
"The next 24 hours will present a very severe challenge," Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai told a televised meeting of the emergency response centre.
In rural Yilan county, where the typhoon will first hit land, wind and rain gathered strength, shutting eateries as most roads emptied out.
"This could be the biggest typhoon in recent years," fishing boat captain Hung Chun told Reuters, adding that Yilan's harbour of Suao was packed with boats seeking shelter.
"It's charging directly towards the east coast and if it makes landfall here, the damage would be enormous."
The government said more than 8,000people had been evacuated from sparsely populated mountain areas at high risk of landslides from the "extremely torrential rain".
Almost all domestic flights had been cancelled, along with 227 international flights, the transport ministry said.
On Thursday, all domestic flights will stop, and 185 international flights will be cancelled, it added.
However, TSMC 2330.TW, the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to Apple AAPL.O, said it expected its factories to maintain normal production during the typhoon, after it activated routine preparations.
Japanese media said the typhoon hadalso grounded all flights departing from and arriving at Miyako and Ishigaki in Japan's Okinawa prefecture, which lies in the storm's path.
SOLDIERS STANDING BY
The typhoon was expected to bring rain of up to 1,800 mm (70 inches) to some mountainous counties in central and southern Taiwan, weather officials said.
Taiwan's defence ministry said it had put 29,000 soldiers on standby for disaster relief efforts.
The typhoon has severely curtailed this year's annual Han Kuang war games, though they have not been cancelled, with scheduled live fire drills held on the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday.
Gaemi is expected to bring heavy to very intense rains over vast swathes of China from Thursday, the water resources ministry warned. The rains are expected to last until July 31, fuelled by the typhoon's abundant moisture, it added.
Gaemi and a southwest monsoon brought heavy rain on Wednesday to the Philippine capital region and northern provinces, bringing work and schools to a halt, with stock and foreign exchange trading suspended. The storm killed 12 people.
While typhoons can be very destructive, Taiwan relies on them to replenish reservoirs after traditionally drier winters, especially in its south.
Reporting by Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Fabian Hamacher and Jeanny Kao in Taipei, Mariko Katsumura in Tokyo, and Bernard Orr and Ryan Woo in Beijing; writing by Ben Blanchard; editing by Himani Sarkar, Clarence Fernandez, Miral Fahmy, Alexandra Hudson and Mark Heinrich
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Penafian: Entiti XM Group menyediakan perkhidmatan pelaksanaan sahaja dan akses ke Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian, yang membolehkan sesorang melihat dan/atau menggunakan kandungan yang ada di dalam atau melalui laman web, tidak bertujuan untuk mengubah atau memperluas, juga tidak mengubah atau mengembangkannya. Akses dan penggunaan tersebut tertakluk kepada: (i) Terma dan Syarat; (ii) Amaran Risiko; dan Penafian Penuh. Oleh itu, kandungan sedemikian disediakan tidak lebih dari sekadar maklumat umum. Terutamanya, perlu diketahui bahawa kandungan Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian bukan permintaan, atau tawaran untuk melakukan transaksi dalam pasaran kewangan. Berdagang dalam mana-mana pasaran kewangan melibatkan tahap risiko yang besar terhadap modal anda.
Semua bahan yang diterbitkan di Kemudahan Dagangan Atas Talian kami bertujuan hanya untuk tujuan pendidikan/maklumat dan tidak mengandungi – dan tidak boleh dianggap mengandungi nasihat kewangan, cukai pelaburan atau dagangan dan cadangan, atau rekod harga dagangan kami, atau tawaran, atau permintaan untuk suatu transaksi dalam sebarang instrumen kewangan atau promosi kewangan yang tidak diminta kepada anda.
Sebarang kandungan pihak ketiga serta kandungan yang disediakan oleh XM, seperti pendapat, berita, penyelidikan, analisis, harga, maklumat lain atau pautan ke laman web pihak ketiga yang terdapat dalam laman web ini disediakan berdasarkan "seadanya" sebagai ulasan pasaran umum dan bukanlah nasihat pelaburan. Sesuai dengan apa-apa kandungan yang ditafsir sebagai penyelidikan pelaburan, anda mestilah ambil perhatian dan menerima bahawa kandungan tersebut tidak bertujuan dan tidak sediakan berdasarkan keperluan undang-undang yang direka untuk mempromosikan penyelidikan pelaburan bebas dan oleh itu, ia dianggap sebagai komunikasi pemasaran di bawah peraturan dan undang-undang yang berkaitan. SIla pastikan bahawa anda telah membaca dan memahami Notifikasi mengenai Penyelidikan Pelaburan Bukan Bebas dan Amaran Risiko mengenai maklumat di atas yang boleh diakses di sini.
