Sawt Falasteen - Typhoon Podul hits Taiwan

The typhoon had wind gusts of 191 kilometres (119 miles) per hour as it made landfall in Taitung County at around 1:00 pm (0500 GMT), the Central Weather Administration said.

Podul is expected to sweep across the island and into the Taiwan Strait later Wednesday, battering central and southern areas still recovering from storms last month.

More than 5,500 people living in the typhoon's path have been evacuated from their homes, while fishermen have secured their boats.

"We are worried about this typhoon," Kaohsiung fisherman Huang Wei told AFP as he used more ropes to tie down his boat and checked on other vessels hours ahead of Podul making landfall.

"We had already made general typhoon preparations yesterday, but this morning I woke up and saw news reports that the typhoon has intensified to be as strong as the last, (Typhoon) Krathon," Huang said.

"Last time, the two boats behind us weren't tied properly and hit my boat."

Krathon slammed into Kaohsiung in October, with wind gusts of 162kph.

Typhoon Podul is expected to dump torrential rain across mountainous areas of Kaohsiung City and neighbouring Pingtung County, as well as lightly populated Hualien and Taitung counties, the CWA said.

Taitung resort worker Lo Wan-chun told AFP by telephone that locals feared the storm could be as strong as Typhoon Nepartak in 2016, when the county recorded its strongest gusts since 1901.

"After 8:00 am, the storm began to intensify," she said, before Podul hit.

"It's still getting stronger. You can hear the wind is loud right now.

"We don't recommend guests go out."

All domestic flights across the island of 23 million people have been cancelled for Wednesday, along with dozens of international journeys.

High-speed rail services on the west coast have been reduced while train services in the southeast have been cancelled.

Many ferry services have also been suspended, and businesses and schools across the south are closed.

More than 31,500 soldiers were ready to assist in typhoon preparations as well as rescue and relief efforts, disaster officials said.

The CWA expects Kaohsiung and Pingtung could be hit with a cumulative 400-600 millimetres (16-24 inches) of rain from Tuesday to Thursday.

Typhoon Danas, which hit Taiwan in early July, killed two people and injured hundreds as the storm dumped more than 500mm of rain across the south over a weekend.

That was followed by torrential rain from July 28 to August 4, with some areas recording more than Taiwan's rainfall of 2.1 metres for 2024.

The week of bad weather left five people dead, three missing, and 78 injured, a disaster official said previously.

Taiwan is accustomed to frequent tropical storms from July to October.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can make destructive floods more likely.

R.Shaban--SF-PST