Typhoon Haikui heads to China after double landfall in Taiwan
Taitung: Typhoon Haikui toppled hundreds of trees, damaged coastal roads and dumped torrential rain across Taiwan Monday before it weakened into a severe tropical storm and headed for southern China.
Haikui had initially appeared to depart the island but made a second landfall early Monday in southwest Kaohsiung before moving out into the Taiwan Strait.
There were no reports of deaths. More than 100 people suffered injuries during the typhoon, according to authorities, though they were minor — mostly due to fallen trees and car accidents.
Destruction was seen in coastal Taitung, a mountainous county in lesser-populated eastern Taiwan where the storm directly hit the day before.
«This is the first time I have seen such a big typhoon in my life,» said Chen Hai-feng, 55, a village chief in Taitung's Donghe township.
Although Haikui is considered less severe than previous storms, Chen told AFP it felt more powerful as he surveyed an early-morning work crew removing trees from a road.
«It came like an arrow straight at us,' he said.
Workers carefully manoeuvred diggers to move downed tree branches and snapped power cables from the road. Further north in Changbin township, workers ferried massive concrete blocks to a coastal highway that had partially collapsed because of powerful waves, hoping they would absorb the impact.
