Nearly 2.9m. homes lose power, 75 injured as Megi slashes Taiwan

Nearly 2.9 million homes were without power as of 6:19 p.m. Tuesday as Typhoon Megi continued to batter most of Taiwan with strong gusts and heavy rain.

The number of homes that have lost power has continued to rise Tuesday as the storm hovered over Taiwan with recorded wind gusts of nearly 100 kilometers per hour.

Taiwan Power Company (Taipower), the country's only electricity supplier, said power to more than 2.899 million homes were cut off by Tuesday evening, the second highest number of homes facing power outage in history, behind the 4.5 million caused by Typhoon Soudelor in 2015.

After emergency repairs, about 2.03 million homes were still facing power outages, with more expected to be blacked out. Full restoration of power is not expected until midnight the following day, Taipower said.

Meanwhile, water supply to 50,000 households in Taipei and New Taipei was expected to be affected by the typhoon as of 6:00 p.m. Tuesday.

Central Emergency Operation Center statistics showed that there have been one dead and 75 injuries related to the storm reported from around Taiwan, mostly from central Taiwan. More than 8,000 people have been evacuated from disaster-prone areas, it added.

As expected, the storm has wreaked havoc with the country's transportation network.

Planes are not leaving from or landing at the two major airports in northern Taiwan, Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei Songshan Airport, and the country's bullet train line and regular train services have been shut down, with a few exceptions of commuter trains.

In the capital Taipei, bus service was temporarily suspended Tuesday afternoon, as were non-underground sections of the Taipei subway system.

The typhoon made landfall on Hualien City in eastern Taiwan at about 2 p.m., according to the Central Weather Bureau, and it warned residents in northern and eastern Taiwan to be prepared for heavy rain and gusty winds.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel