Tropical storm Danas has killed two people and injured more than 600 in Taiwan as it churns towards eastern China, prompting flash flood alerts.
The storm, which brought record winds and torrential rains to Taiwan, is expected to make landfall near the port city of Taizhou in Zhejiang province on Tuesday morning, Chinese officials said.
Winds at the storm’s centre were recorded at around 80kmph (50mph) as it churned northwest across the South China Sea.
Local maritime authorities have cancelled more than 100 passenger voyages and suspended operations at coastal construction sites as a precaution.
Danas is forecast to bring between 100mm and 250mm of rainfall across a 650km stretch from Fuzhou in Fujian province to Hangzhou in Zhejiang, triggering flash flood warnings.
After sweeping through Zhejiang, the storm is expected to continue inland into Jiangxi province, a mountainous region that has seen deadly landslides and flood disasters in previous storm events.
Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration said the storm battered southern parts of the island on Sunday and Monday with gusts reaching up to 220kmph, bringing down over 650 electric poles and uprooting hundreds of trees.
Emergency responders said one person was killed after a tree crushed a vehicle in Tainan, while another died after being struck by debris. More than 600 people were treated for injuries, according to local media.
Footage shared on Taiwanese television showed submerged roads, collapsed rooftops, and emergency workers rescuing people stranded in floodwaters in Tainan and Kaohsiung.
Several schools and offices across southern Taiwan remained shut on Monday due to widespread power outages and transport disruption.
In mainland China, provincial authorities have begun deploying emergency teams and readying evacuation centres across vulnerable areas in anticipation of Danas’s arrival. Jiangxi’s rolling hills and river basins make it particularly susceptible to landslides and flash floods following heavy rain.
Danas is the second major storm system to affect China in less than three weeks. In late June, tropical cyclone Wutip brought similar rainfall to parts of Guangdong and Hainan, leading to severe flooding and crop losses.
Scientists have warned that extreme weather events like Danas are becoming more intense and frequent as the climate warms.
