Taiwan effectively closed on Friday, October 23, as Typhoon Champi swept past the island’s northeastern coast, forcing schools, offices and financial markets to shut while airlines cancelled hundreds of flights. The storm, which had briefly reached super typhoon intensity earlier in the week, killed at least one person on the small island of Liuqiu and left dozens more injured, according to Taiwanese authorities.
An island-wide shutdown
Closures spread across nearly all of Taiwan on Friday, with work and classes suspended in 21 counties and cities as the storm’s broad wind field enveloped the island. Only Kinmen, a Taiwan-controlled island group off the Chinese coast, carried on as normal. Retailers including major department stores shut their doors, and Taiwan’s stock exchange remained closed for the day.
Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration kept both sea and land typhoon warnings in force, warning that the storm’s center would draw closest to the island’s northeastern tip between Friday night and Saturday morning before turning north. Forecasters said the typhoon’s radius stretched roughly 320 kilometres, wide enough to cover most of Taiwan, and mobile phone alerts warned coastal towns of waves higher than six metres. Northern mountain areas faced the heaviest rainfall, with forecasters predicting totals of up to one metre in some areas, raising the risk of flooding and landslides.
Champi had been a formidable storm at its peak, with maximum sustained winds reaching 298 kilometres per hour earlier in the week. By the time it approached Taiwan it had weakened considerably — Taiwan’s weather agency reported gusts of about 191 kilometres per hour near the storm’s center, while the US-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center put its maximum sustained winds at 176 kilometres per hour. Cooler waters and increasing wind shear were expected to weaken it further, though authorities cautioned that its expansive size kept the danger high.
Air travel bore the brunt of the disruption. Taiwan’s transport ministry said all 262 of the island’s domestic flights were cancelled for Friday, along with at least 669 international services, according to the Associated Press; Reuters put the number of cancelled international flights at more than 350. Several ferry routes were also suspended, and high-speed rail services on the west coast continued to run while other transport was reduced.
One death on Liuqiu, dozens injured
The storm’s heaviest toll came on Thursday, when a man was swept into the sea by large waves off a beach on Liuqiu, a small coral island off Taiwan’s southeastern coast, according to local disaster officials. The fire department reported 94 injuries linked to the storm, with road accidents accounting for the largest share as drivers contended with hazardous conditions.
Almost 1,300 people were moved out of vulnerable mountainous areas, the government said, and President Lai Ching-te urged residents to follow official updates, stay away from coastlines and mountain zones, and comply with evacuation measures. The Central Weather Administration advised people in coastal areas to avoid going outdoors and to watch for falling objects.
Thousands of military personnel were placed on standby to assist with rescue and relief work, and heavy rain already began falling in several regions ahead of the storm’s closest approach. In Taipei, some districts recorded more than 200 millimetres of rain within 24 hours.
Japan and the Philippines feel the storm too
Champi’s effects extended well beyond Taiwan. In southwestern Japan, the typhoon injured at least one person, knocked out power and grounded flights. On Miyako island, a woman in her 70s broke her leg in the blowing wind, the Okinawa prefecture government said, while nearly 2,000 homes on Ishigaki island lost electricity. Dozens of flights in and out of Miyako, Ishigaki and Okinawa were cancelled, and the storm was forecast to pass over Yonaguni, Japan’s westernmost inhabited island.
In the Philippines, the coast guard barred ships and ferries from sailing in choppy waters off several northern towns and cities on Friday. The main domestic airport in Basco, the capital of Batanes province, was shut down and boarded up as a safety precaution, with two local flights cancelled. In Cagayan province, nearly 200 people moved to safer ground, including around 100 who relocated to government-run emergency shelters, and classes were suspended in the island town of Calayan.
The storm had already battered parts of the Pacific earlier in October, blowing past Guam, where a federal disaster area was declared.
What happens next
Forecasters expect Champi’s center to remain offshore as it completes its pass along Taiwan’s northeastern coast, then turn north along China’s eastern coast toward southern Japan. Taiwan’s weather agency said the storm’s circulation could continue affecting the island into Saturday evening, with further heavy rainfall expected in the north and east.
The situation remains developing, and officials continue to urge residents to monitor official warnings and avoid coastal and mountainous areas until the storm has fully moved away.
