Typhoon Soudelor Impacts: 3 Killed, Multiple People Injured; Over 2 Million without Power After Storm Slams Taiwan

August 7,2015

Typhoon Soudelor battered Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain Saturday, killing at least 3, injuring several and leaving millions without power.
An indirect consequence of Soudelor's fury occurred when a firefighter was reportedly killed while clearing storm damage. The firefighter died and another was injured when a drunk driver struck the pair as they attempted to remove a tree from a roadway in Pingtung County, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported.
Initial reports said 27 people were injured during the storm, CNA added. As the sun rose over the island nation, residents and others found streets in Taipei were littered with trees, power lines and other debris.
(MORE: Track Typhoon Soudelor)
An 8-year-old girl and her mother died when they were swept out to sea by strong waves as the storm neared land, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported. The girl's twin sister remains missing along the beach in the northeastern county of Yilan, the report added.
Over 2,080,000 Taipower customers were without power as the storm hammered the island, according to the utility's website. At one point, nearly 2,800,000 were rendered powerless.
Multiple transportation agencies halted operations while the storm deluged the island with rain and heavy winds, the Taipei Times reported. Nearly 30,000 train passengers were affected when the Taiwan Railways Administration ceased operations for Puyuma Express trains scheduled to travel between Taipei and Taitung counties.
Schools and businesses closed their doors Friday and Saturday to keep residents safe from the storm, Taiwan News said.

The municipal government in the city of Kaohsiung evacuated hospital patients and pregnant women, setting up special shelters in areas likely to be flooded and preparing 13,000 sandbags. More than 2,000 people were relocated from Taiwan's outer islands, where many tourists visit on vacations, the Guardian said.
The island nation will be tested by the typhoon's strong winds, especially the numerous skyscrapers found in Taipei and Kaohsiung. That includes Taipei 101, currently the second-tallest building in the world, at 1,667 feet.
"The biggest challenges are the incredibly high mountain peaks along the entire coastline," storm chaser Josh Morgerman told The Weather Channel while reporting from Taiwan. "First, they cause deadly rockslides in heavy rain. Secondly, they mess with typhoons and cause them to wobble erratically as they approach the coast, making it hard to pinpoint where it’s going to cross."

Typhoon Soudelor, as seen from the International Space Station on the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2015.
(NASA/Kimiya Yui)

Soudelor's approach forced a group of Taiwanese student activists to end a protest in front of the Ministry of Education Friday, said the Taipei Times. The protestors were standing against curriculum guideline changes and removed all tents, sleeping bags and additional items before moving out.
According to a separate Taipei Times report, the Central Emergency Operations Center's information management system crashed for nearly three hours on Friday. Officials didn't rule out hacking as the cause of the outage, the report added.
In southeastern Taiwan, ferry operators in Taitung County have announced that services between Fugang Harbor, Green Island and Orchid Island will be suspended through Sunday. The Taiwan Railways Administration have canceled their holiday cruise-style trains, as they travel through mountainous regions vulnerable to the heavy rains and winds brought on by the typhoon.
(MORE: Soudelor Causes Major Damage in Saipan)
Earlier this week, Soudelor underwent rapid intensification and became a super typhoon, the strongest tropical cyclone on Earth so far in 2015.
The Water Resources Agency has said it has 881 water pumps on hand, 800 of which will be placed in designated areas and the rest will be allocated as needed, according to a separate Focus Taiwan report. They have also placed 35 detention ponds in areas prone to flooding.
Soudelor has already caused devastation along its journey, particularly on the island of Saipan. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands remains without power and water in the wake of the tropical system, and U.S. President Barack Obama declared the nation a disaster area, according to the Associated Press. The disaster declaration allows federal funding to be sent to the U.S. territory as it rebuilds from the massive storm.