Typhoon Meranti battered southeastern China with heavy winds and torrential rain on Thursday, cutting power, ripping up trees and smashing windows, a day after lashing Taiwan.

The super typhoon, packing winds of 170 kilometres per hour (105 miles per hour) made landfall around 3am near the city of Xiamen before heading inland, state media said.

Images from Xiamen showed flooded streets, uprooted trees, and traffic signs torn from their posts by the violent winds.

There were no reports of any casualties.

The Xinhua news agency described the storm as the most powerful to hit Fujian province in at least 67 years, with meteorological records only going back to the founding of modern China in 1949.

Local media described windows broken by flying roof tiles with fragments littering pavements and water supplies cut.

Schools and many businesses were already shut for the Mid-Autumn Festival when people traditionally meet up with family for celebratory meals.

Xiamen's utility providers said there had been power outages in most of the city, which is home to some 3.5 million people.

Train services were disrupted throughout Fujian as well as in neighbouring Jiangxi province.

Officials had earlier urged people to stay at home and ordered ships to return to port as Meranti bore down on the mainland, having lashed Taiwan on Wednesday.

The storm left one person dead and 38 injured after skirting past the island's southern tip with the strongest winds recorded there in 21 years.

A 58-year-old fisherman died when he fell into the water after a vessel broke from its anchor. Most of the other injuries were caused by falling objects.

Thousands of others were forced to flee their homes and around 350,000 households were still without power as of Thursday morning.

At the peak of the storm, more than one million households lost power.

The island was also bracing for the possible impact of another tropical storm, Typhoon Malakas, which was forecast to sweep past the east coast of the island on Saturday.</s>Hong Kong (CNN) China has issued its highest warning for high ocean waves as Typhoon Meranti slices its way toward the mainland after pounding Taiwan.

The powerful storm slammed southern Taiwan early Thursday local time, bringing winds of up to 230 mph (370 kilometers per hour) -- faster than a Formula One race car -- at one point and torrential rains.

Meranti is the strongest typhoon since Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines in 2013 and is the strongest to come this close to Taiwan since 1959.

As Meranti plowed toward the mainland, heavy rain has been socking Xiamen, a Chinese city across the Taiwan Strait, CNN correspondent Matt Rivers reported.

Rough waters seen from the Chung Hwa bridge in Taiwan's Taitung county.

Rough waters seen from the Chung Hwa bridge in Taiwan's Taitung county.

Storm damage is seen near Fugang fishing port in southern Taiwan.

Storm damage is seen near Fugang fishing port in southern Taiwan.

A truck is overturned in southern Pingtung county, Taiwan on September 14, 2016. The island is bracing for the impact of Super Typhoon Meranti.

A truck is overturned in southern Pingtung county, Taiwan on September 14, 2016. The island is bracing for the impact of Super Typhoon Meranti.

Meranti is closing in on eastern China's Fujian Province.

The storm's center is within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the coast and should make landfall around 2 p.m. ET Wednesday (2 a.m. local time Thursday) near Xiamen.

Mainland emergency crews and officials braced for the deluge.

"The typhoon will bring gales and heavy rains when it makes landfall," meteorologist Li Mei said, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.

No longer super but still dangerous

Meranti had been classified as a super typhoon, but the storm -- though still dangerous -- has weakened to typhoon status, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said late Wednesday.

Continued weakening of the storm is expected, but Meranti should remain at typhoon strength for about the next 12 hours, forecasters said.

The main threats to land include large storm surges and coastal inundation, inland flash flooding, mudslides and damaging winds in excess of 90 mph (150 kilometers per hour).

Two people were injured, according to Taiwanese authorities. More than 500,000 households lost power, Taiwanese state-run Central News Agency said.

More than 370 domestic and international flights were canceled, train services were suspended and roads were closed.

As of 7 a.m. local time Wednesday, around 1,500 people had been evacuated from the affected areas, Li Wei-sen of the Taiwan Central Emergency Operating Center told CNN.

Almost 4,000 military and police personnel were deployed to prepare for potential future evacuations, but he said authorities are not expecting major damage or destruction.

In West Dawu, rainfall totaled 707 millimeters or nearly 28 inches, and flood warnings are in place for 16 rivers, the news agency said.

But the main brunt of the storm will fall on mainland China.

The storm could be the strongest to hit Guangdong province in 47 years if it makes landfall in the eastern part, Xinhua reported.

"It only took nine hours for Meranti to grow into a super typhoon from a typhoon," Guangdong meteorologist Zhang Dong told the news agency.

"Packing winds between 202 to 220 kilometers per hour, it is interacting with another storm, Malakas, 1,000 kilometers away, and the route could be hard to predict."

China's National Meteorological Center issued a red typhoon warning at 6 a.m. local time Wednesday, while authorities cautioned that waves eight to 13 meters (26 to 42 feet) high could be expected in the northeastern South China Sea.

"Gales and waves up to 12 meters high have been observed off the eastern coast of Taiwan, as the 14th typhoon this year moves westward and is expected to hit the coast of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces on Wednesday and Thursday," Xinhua reported.

Surges are expected off those three provinces, officials said.

The State Oceanic Administration trigged "a class-II emergency response, the second highest level," ships have been ordered back to harbor and people have been told not to venture outside, according to the news agency.

Meranti underwent rapid intensification Monday and Tuesday, growing from a Category 1 equivalent storm to a Category 5; the typhoon has maintained winds of 190 mph (305 kilometers per hour) for nearly 24 hours.

Despite being a frequent target for powerful Pacific typhoons, Taiwan has a track record of limiting their deadly impact. But storms often turn deadlier as they move to the mainland. The flatter terrain -- prone to storm surges and inland flooding -- and higher population density often result in a great number of deaths or displacement of people.

Despite weakening to a tropical storm, Nepartak and its associated heavy rainfall of up to 10 inches killed more than 80 people.

Meranti is expected to be much stronger when it hits the mainland, with winds around 130 mph (210 kilometers per hour), or the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico.</s>Typhoon Meranti has hit southeastern China, bringing strong winds and lashing rain and cutting power in what state media is calling the strongest storm of the year globally.

The storm, registered as a super typhoon before losing strength after sweeping southern Taiwan, made landfall on Thursday near the major city of Xiamen.

Pictures on state media showed flooded streets in some parts of the province of Fujian, where Xiamen is located, fallen trees and crushed cars.

Dozens of flights and train services have been cancelled, state television said, inconveniencing people at the start of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

Some parts of Xiamen, including both urban and rural areas, had power supplies cut off, the report added.

Xinhua news agency said it was the strongest typhoon to hit that part of the country since the founding of Communist China in 1949 and the strongest so far this year anywhere in the world.

Tens of thousands of people had already been evacuated as the storm approached and fishing boats called back to port.

One person died and 38 were injured in Taiwan, the Central Emergency Operation Centre said, as the typhoon hit the southern part of the island on Wednesday night.

Meranti was a Category 5 typhoon, the strongest classification awarded by Tropical Storm Risk storm tracker, before it made landfall on the mainland and has since been downgraded to Category 2.

Meranti, which grew in strength the closer it got to Taiwan on Wednesday night, was carrying maximum winds of 227kmh as it clipped the south of the island, the weather bureau said.

"This typhoon is the world's strongest so far this year," weather bureau spokeswoman Hsieh Pei-yun said.

Taiwan's Central Emergency Operation Centre said many power lines were brought down, some by falling trees, cutting electricity to 550,000 households.

"The damage from Meranti will continue to rise as the storm slams the island," said emergency centre spokesman Li Wei-sen.

Trains and shipping services were disrupted, while offices and schools in Kaohsiung and other cities were closed and almost 1500 people were evacuated, the centre said.

Typhoons are common at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross the warm waters of the Pacific and bringing fierce winds and rain when they hit land.

Meranti will continue to lose strength as it pushes inland and up towards China's commercial capital of Shanghai, but will bring heavy rain.

Taiwan will feel the full force of the typhoon through Wednesday and into Thursday before it barrels into China, meteorologists said.

China's National Marine Environment Forecasting Centre has issued its highest red alert as the storm approaches the country's eastern coast.

The typhoon will first make landfall in Fujian and Canton on Thursday and authorities have launched an emergency response programme and ordered all ships to return to port and residents to remain indoors.

The authorities have also ordered embankments of dams to be reinforced to prevent overflows.

Meranti comes just over two months after the deadly typhoon Nepartak cut power, grounded flights and forced thousands to flee their homes across central and southern areas of Taiwan.

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot cut a swath of destruction through southern Taiwan, killing about 700 people and causing up to US$3 billion of damage.</s>One of the strongest typhoons in recent history is bearing down on Taiwan and China with winds of up to 225mph and waves of almost 50ft.

Super typhoon Meranti formed in the Pacific and is making its way to the tip of the tiny island on Wednesday morning local time.

It grew from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm in less than 24 hours.

Schools have been shut and transport ground to a halt as the population of more than 23million people prepare to bunker down.

Meranti is the strongest typhoon since Typhoon Haiayan which devastated the Philippines in 2013.

Haiyan killed at least 6,300 people and further affected an estimated 11million.

Meranti is also the strongest typhoon to come close to Taiwan since 1959.

Most of the densely-populated country live in North-Western Taiwan, but many people are likely to feel its force nonetheless.
• Summer's over as thunder, lightning storms and torrential rain hit Britain after record-breaking temperatures

The typhoon is then expected to continue on its path and hit mainland China.

It could potentially bring a 10-foot storm surge and hit coastal cities such as Xiamen which has a population of 3.5 million.</s>A powerful typhoon swept into southeastern China on Thursday after hitting Taiwan, leaving a total of two dead and dozens injured.

Weather officials in both China and Taiwan said Typhoon Meranti was the strongest storm of its kind this year. Chinese state media reported one death and one person missing, as high winds and rain shattered windows on tall buildings, knocked down trees and disrupted water supplies in China's Fujian province, causing a widespread blackout in the coastal city of Xiamen.

In Taiwan, the Central News Agency reported one person was killed and 44 were injured on the island by the storm. It said Meranti knocked out power in almost 1 million homes and water in more than 700,000.

More than 140 trains heading into southeastern China were cancelled. An 800-year-old bridge in Fujian province was one casualty of the storm; state media released video of a rapidly flowing river pushing against the bridge until it fell in.

Another video posted online shows a large, moon-shaped balloon bouncing between cars on a roadway. The balloon was an apparent decoration for Thursday's start of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival in both mainland China and Taiwan.

Chinese meteorologists downgraded Meranti from a super typhoon to a tropical depression on Thursday afternoon and said they expect it to fade further as it moves north.

Dozens of flights and train services have been cancelled, state television said, inconveniencing people at the start of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

Xinhua news agency said it was the strongest typhoon to hit that part of the country since the founding of Communist China in 1949 and the strongest so far this year anywhere in the world.

Tens of thousands of people had already been evacuated as the storm approached and fishing boats called back to port.

One person died and 38 were injured in Taiwan, the Central Emergency Operation Centre said, as the typhoon hit the southern part of the island on Wednesday night.

Meranti was a Category 5 typhoon, the strongest classification awarded by Tropical Storm Risk storm tracker, before it made landfall on the mainland and has since been downgraded to Category 2.

Meranti, which grew in strength the closer it got to Taiwan on Wednesday night, was carrying maximum winds of 227kmh as it clipped the south of the island, the weather bureau said.

"This typhoon is the world's strongest so far this year," weather bureau spokeswoman Hsieh Pei-yun said.

Taiwan's Central Emergency Operation Centre said many power lines were brought down, some by falling trees, cutting electricity to 550,000 households.

"The damage from Meranti will continue to rise as the storm slams the island," said emergency centre spokesman Li Wei-sen.

Trains and shipping services were disrupted, while offices and schools in Kaohsiung and other cities were closed and almost 1500 people were evacuated, the centre said.

Typhoons are common at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross the warm waters of the Pacific and bringing fierce winds and rain when they hit land.

Meranti will continue to lose strength as it pushes inland and up towards China's commercial capital of Shanghai, but will bring heavy rain.

Taiwan will feel the full force of the typhoon through Wednesday and into Thursday before it barrels into China, meteorologists said.

China's National Marine Environment Forecasting Centre has issued its highest red alert as the storm approaches the country's eastern coast.

The typhoon will first make landfall in Fujian and Canton on Thursday and authorities have launched an emergency response programme and ordered all ships to return to port and residents to remain indoors.

The authorities have also ordered embankments of dams to be reinforced to prevent overflows.

Meranti comes just over two months after the deadly typhoon Nepartak cut power, grounded flights and forced thousands to flee their homes across central and southern areas of Taiwan.

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot cut a swath of destruction through southern Taiwan, killing about 700 people and causing up to US$3 billion of damage.</s>TAIPEI, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of homes lost power across Taiwan on Wednesday as Super Typhoon Meranti hit the island, a storm seen as the strongest in the world so far this year, forcing schools and businesses to close and flights to be cancelled.

Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau warned that the Category 5 storm would threaten several southern and eastern cities, including Kaohsiung and Hualien, with strong winds, torrential rain and flooding.

Meranti, which grew in strength as it neared Taiwan, was carrying maximum winds of 216 km per hour (134 mph), meteorologists said. Fallen power cables and trees were among some of the early damage reported.

"This typhoon is the world's strongest so far this year," weather bureau spokeswoman Hsieh Pei-yun said. "Its impact on Taiwan will peak all day today."

Companies and schools in Kaohsiung and other cities have closed and almost 1,500 residents have been evacuated, the Central Emergency Operation Centre said in a statement.

Nearly 200,000 households were without power, according to the Taiwan Power Co. Most domestic flights have been cancelled, including all of those from Kaohsiung airport, where international flights were also severely affected.

Taiwan will feel the full force of the typhoon through Wednesday and into Thursday before the storm barrels into China, meteorologists said.

Meranti is expected to make landfall in the southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Fujian on Thursday, where authorities were already cancelling train services and preparing to evacuate people, state media said.

In eastern Guangdong province, authorities ordered trawlers to return to harbour and fishermen to shelter on land from Meranti, which the official China News Service said could be the strongest typhoon to hit that part of China since 1969.

Typhoons are generated at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross the warm waters of the Pacific before bringing strong winds and violent rainstorms when they hit land.

Meranti comes just over two months after the deadly typhoon Nepartak cut power, grounded flights and forced thousands to flee their homes across central and southern areas of Taiwan.

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot cut a swath of destruction through southern Taiwan, killing about 700 people and causing up to $3 billion of damage. (Reporting by Faith Hung; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Paul Tait)</s>Typhoon Meranti has slammed into southeastern China bringing flooded streets, crushed cars and forcing people to evacuate in boats.

The storm, registered as a super typhoon before losing strength after sweeping southern Taiwan, made landfall in the early hours of Thursday near the major city of Xiamen.

Large sections of Xiamen had power supplies cut off, while parts of the city suffered water supply disruptions and some windows on tall buildings shattered.

Meranti is the strongest typhoon to hit that part of the country since the founding of Communist China in 1949 and the strongest so far this year anywhere in the world.

Dozens of flights and train services have been cancelled, state television added, disrupting travel at the start of the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

Tens of thousands of people had already been evacuated as the storm approached and fishing boats called back to port.

One person died and 38 were injured in Taiwan, the Central Emergency Operation Centre said, as the typhoon hit the southern part of the island on Wednesday.

Meranti was a Category 5 typhoon, the strongest classification awarded by Tropical Storm Risk storm tracker, before it made landfall on the mainland and has since been downgraded to Category 2.

Typhoons are common at this time of year, picking up strength as they cross the warm waters of the Pacific and bringing fierce winds and rain when they hit land.

Meranti will continue to lose strength as it pushes inland and up towards China's commercial capital of Shanghai, but will bring heavy rain.

Meranti is the strongest typhoon since Typhoon Haiayan which devastated the Philippines in 2013.

Haiyan killed at least 6,300 people and further affected an estimated 11million.
• Summer's over as thunder, lightning storms and torrential rain hit Britain after record-breaking temperatures</s>Taipei, Sept. 13 (CNA) The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) issued its first land warning for Typhoon Meranti Tuesday morning, following a sea warning late Monday as the storm was expected to sweep past the southern part of Taiwan Wednesday through Thursday.



Residents in Pingtung and Taitung as well as the outlying Orchid Island and Green Island are advised to be on alert for strong wind and heavy rain, the bureau said.



Also, ships operating in waters southeast and northeast of Taiwan, the Bashi Channel, the Taiwan Strait and waters near the Pratas Islands should take precautions against high waves, it added.



As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, Meranti was located 540 kilometers east-southeast of Eluanbi, the southernmost tip of Taiwan, moving at a speed of 22 kilometers per hour in a west-northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, the bureau's data showed.



With a radius of 200 kilometers, the typhoon was carrying maximum sustained winds of 209 kph, with gusts of up to 263 kph, according to the CWB.



The bureau predicted that Meranti will have the strongest impact on Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday.



Wu Der-rong (吳德榮), a meteorologist and adjunct associate professor of atmospheric sciences at National Central University, described Meranti as "the strongest typhoon on earth this year."



He said data from the U.S. military shows that Meranti is even stronger than Typhoon Nepartak that hit Taiwan in July, although data from Taiwan and Japan both indicate that Meranti is similar to Nepartak in intensity.



(By Wang Shu-fen, Chen Wei-ting and Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/ke



For latest flight information around Taiwan:

●Taipei Songshan Airport (Airport code: TSA, for domestic services and flights to Tokyo Haneda, Seoul Kimpo and several Chinese cities)



●Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE, for most international flights)



●Taichung airport (RMQ, domestic flights and services to Hong Kong, China, and regional destinations in Asia)



●Kaohsiung International Airport (KHH, for both international and domestic services)</s>Parts of Taiwan were brought to a standstill Wednesday as Typhoon Meranti skirted past the island’s southern tip, bringing the strongest winds in 21 years and disrupting traffic ahead of a major holiday.

Although Meranti did not make landfall, the storm brought violent winds and torrential rain to eastern and southern Taiwan.

By midafternoon, Meranti was 90 kilometers (56 miles) west-northwest of southernmost Hengchun township, packing gusts of up to 234 kilometers per hour (145 mph).

Hengchun’s observation station recorded the strongest winds in its 120-year history earlier Wednesday, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau.

“Meranti will have its most significant impact on Taiwan today,” said forecaster Hsieh Pei-yun. “It is the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in 21 years in terms of maximum sustained wind near the center.”

Southern Kenting, a tourist destination known for its white sand beaches, was battered by winds and floods.

Residents in a fishing port in southern Taitung County woke up to find that a small lighthouse had disappeared into the sea as waves almost 10 meters high lashed the shore.

Trucks and cargo containers were overturned, while electricity poles and trees were blown down by winds in some southern areas. One uprooted tree hit a car in the southern city of Kaohsiung, though the driver was unharmed.

There were no reports of fatalities or serious injuries, according to the Central Emergency Operation Center.

School and work were cancelled for most eastern and southern counties, and the typhoon had knocked out power for more than 300,000 households.

There were severe travel disruptions for the Mid-Autumn Festival weekend starting Thursday; over 300 domestic and international flights had been cancelled and trains running along the east coast had been halted. More than 130 ferry services to offshore islets and to several Chinese coastal cities had been suspended.

The coast guard was forced to cancel a ceremony to launch two new ships in Kaohsiung, while a maritime and defense expo in the city had been postponed.

The storm was expected to dump as much as 800 millimeters (31.5 inches) of rain in mountainous areas, potentially triggering landslides.

Close to 1,500 people had been evacuated from at-risk areas, with about half in temporary shelters.

Meranti was moving northwest into the Taiwan Strait at 18 kilometers an hour.

Another storm brewing east of the Philippines may also affect Taiwan later this week. The weather bureau’s Hsieh said Tropical Storm Malakas was expected to be closest to the island on Friday and Saturday, but was unlikely to make landfall.

Three people were killed and hundreds were injured in July when Typhoon Nepartak pounded Taiwan.

The island’s worst typhoon death toll came in 2009, when Morakot left more than 600 dead, including 400 people who were buried by mudslides triggered by torrential rains.</s>An enormous 'super' typhoon set to rip through China after leaving a trail of devastation in Taiwan has recorded wind gusts of up to 370 km/h and waves 14-metres high.

Super Typhoon Meranti is the strongest recorded since Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 and almost 1800 tourists have already been evacuated from smaller islands off Taiwan.

There are also fears for 3000 people on the tiny island of Itbayat in the Philippines after the category 5 storm crashed through on Wednesday.

It is unknown if residents had time to escape the typhoon as it engulfed the 83 square kilometre island, The Guardian reported.

The typhoon hit Taiwan on Wednesday afternoon before moving on to China.

Meranti is the strongest typhoon since Super Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013. Haiyan was the deadliest typhoon to hit the Philippines and over 6000 people were killed.

Photos of the devastation in Taiwan after Meranti ripped through show a truck southern Pingtung show a truck rolled on its side as the rain bucketed down.

Residents waded through ankle deep water to remove rocks and create a clear passage to try and escape the flash floods in their vehicles.

Over 200,000 homes lost power, schools were closed and flights were cancelled in Taiwan on Wednesday, according to the Indian Express.

'Its impact on Taiwan will peak all day today,' weather bureau spokeswoman Hsieh Pei-yun said.

China is celebrating its Mid-Autumn Festival and a dumping of 100 to 200 millimetres of rain is expected to affect the festivities on Thursday.

The typhoon recorded 300km/h winds for 18 hours on Wednesday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Taiwan issues land and sea warnings for Typhoon Meranti which is expected to hit tomorrow the southern part of the island.