Taiwan evacuated more than 8,300 people before the arrival of severely weakened Typhoon Fung-wong on Wednesday, which brought heavy downpours to the mountainous east coast and triggered floods that reached neck height in places.
Businesses and schools were closed in most parts of the south of the island, leaving 51 people injured.
Television images showed severe flooding in parts of the country’s largely rural eastern Yilan County, with water up to their necks as soldiers staged rescue operations for those stranded.
“The water came so fast,” said fisherman Hung Chun-yi, who spent the night cleaning mud from his house in the eastern port city of Suao after the first floor was engulfed by 60cm-deep water.
“It rained so much and so fast that the sewers couldn’t handle it.”
Firefighters said about 8,300 people were moved from their homes to safer areas, mainly in Yilan and nearby Hualien, where a monsoon from the north boosted rainfall with an unusually late typhoon.
Dongshan town in Yilan received 794 mm (31 inches) of rain on Tuesday, weather officials said.
Fung-wong is expected to skim Taiwan’s southern tip later Wednesday before heading toward the Pacific Ocean. It lost significant power after crossing the Philippines, killing 18 people.
In September, a typhoon triggered floods that killed 18 people in Hualien.
