typhoon katton has made landfall on taiwan's Southwestern Coast the storm has already killed two people and injured hundreds more as it approached the island thousands have evacuated low-lying and mountainous areas officials have shot down schools and offices flights are cancelled and financial markets closed taiwan's president warns the damage is likely to be catastrophic 40,000 troops are on standby to help with possible rescue efforts and our very own James Chader is in the major port city of gaang where the tyoon may landfall we can see the rains there behind you James this is a heavily populated
area how intense is the typhoon absolutely well in the hours leading up to this typhoon making landfall the wind and rain has been pretty extraordinary down here in gawong a city of some 2 million people the major port city for taiwan's exports and imports I don't know if you can see this this patch of trees behind me over the course of the last few hours they've essentially been completely battered stripped bare in some cases many of them broken down as well as a result of those winds as the typhoon was approaching much of Taiwan now
is on um the third consecutive day of closures school closures business closures company closures um the entirety of Taiwan is on its second consecutive day of such closures um in advance of this typhoon arriving um really interestingly though as this typhoon was approaching it was actually weakening so it just gives you some some impression really of how strong this typhoon is despite it um weakening as it was approaching because of that authorities um are still warning of of potential risks of storm surges especially in those coastal areas like in this city of gong but also
further up the coast further north in thaan um and that's why those tens of thousands of military personnel remain on standby to assist with rescue operations what can we expect in the next hours James yeah we're expecting this typhoon to now move northward slowly in local media this typhoon is now being called a strange typhoon because of the extremely slow pace that it was actually moving we were initially expecting this typhoon to make landfall some point yesterday so Wednesday afternoon it's actually made landfall some 24 hours later authorities are thus warning because of that slower
pace of the impact that it's likely to have on Taiwan could be longer than was initially forecast it's meant to um bring heavy Wind and Rain to the western side of typhoon the more populous part of of Taiwan um some 90% of taiwan's population resident in that western part before it decreases in intensity to a tropical depression likely as it arrives in the capital type in the North of Taiwan at some points on Friday DW's James Shader from Taiwan thank you so much [Music]
