Evacuations have begun in southern Taiwan as Super Typhoon Krathon inches toward the southwest coast, expected to bring torrential rains and winds of over 200 km/h to much of the country over the coming days.
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00:00Taiwan is bracing for impact as Super Typhoon Kraton approaches from the southwest.
00:05President Lai Ching-teh is urging citizens to stay alert and avoid traveling to mountainous
00:10regions.
00:11Kraton has been growing in strength as it makes a rare swing around towards Taiwan's
00:16west coast.
00:17The storm is expected to make landfall on Wednesday morning, bringing with it potentially
00:22deadly winds and rain.
00:25Our reporter Rick Glauert is live for us in southern Taiwan.
00:31This is Fangliao in southwest Taiwan, and it's just a little bit north of here that
00:35Typhoon Kraton is expected to make landfall over the next few hours.
00:40But as you can see, the weather is already deteriorating here.
00:43The waves here are reaching heights of two to three meters.
00:46Across the county, there's a public holiday, schools, businesses are closing, and the Coast
00:51Guard here are reminding citizens that there is a sea warning in place and that it is dangerous
00:56to be near the sea.
00:59Elsewhere in the county, in mountainous regions, there's already reports of flooding and landslides.
01:04That's affecting the people that are living there.
01:06There's hundreds of people that have been evacuated.
01:09We went to a relief center where some people have had to spend the night outside of their
01:13homes.
01:26There's a stream there, and if it rains heavily, it's an area that's prone to landslides.
01:33If the rain is too heavy, there's a risk of landslides.
01:37We're more at ease here.
01:40We can watch TV reports, so we're at ease.
01:49It doesn't matter if the wind is strong or the rain is strong.
01:57So Typhoon Krapon is currently lingering just off the coast of Taiwan here, and it's expected
02:03to slowly move towards this area over the next few hours.
02:07Of course, Taiwan is no stranger to typhoons, but what makes this one rare is both its intensity
02:13– it can be considered, in hurricane terms, a Category 4 – and also its direction.
02:19It's coming from the southwest.
02:21So communities here are preparing, bracing themselves for what could well be a once-in-a-generation storm.