Typhoon Talim strengthened near southern Japanese islands yesterday, bringing torrential rains and devastating winds to the region, weather authorities said. 
Trees were uprooted and power lines knocked down on Miyako Island and its neighbouring islands, according to the Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper, as the Japan Meteorological Agency put them on maximum alert.
About 16,700 households on the islands were without power, the paper said. “We will start recovery work as soon as the wind and rain dies down,” Okinawa Electric Power said, according to the report.
Ninety flights and more than 300 passenger ships were cancelled in Okinawa prefecture, as the outer bands of the season’s 18th typhoon had already arrived in the region in the morning, local media reported. The agency warned the storm could generate waves of up to 11m and maximum gusts of 216km per hour (kph). The storm is also expected to dump rainfall of up to 250mm in the Okinawa island region by today evening, the agency said.
As of 6pm, the storm was centred about 70km north-east of Miyako Island, travelling north-west at 15kph with maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of 216kph. Typhoon Talim also affected Taiwan as the country’s Central Weather Bureau issued a heavy rain warning to six cities and counties in the north. The storm brought rainfall of 70mm in Taipei yesterday, the bureau said.
Meanwhile, China issued warnings that two typhoons were set to hit the country, one headed for Zhejiang province to the south-east and another for Hainan province in the south, reported state media yesterday. The second-highest orange warning was issued by China’s National Meteorological Centre for Typhoon Talim, which is forecasted to hit Zhejiang today or tomorrow, reported state news agency Xinhua.
Talim “could intensify to a super typhoon,” it said. 
An alert was also issued for Typhoon Doksuri, which is set to either skirt past Hainan Island or land in the coastal areas of Hainan province between tonight and tomorrow, said Xinhua quoting the Hainan province weather bureau.
In August, Typhoon Hato — one of the strongest storms on record to hit China, devastated the former Portuguese colony of Macau, causing 10 deaths and more than a billion US dollars worth of damage to the casino city.




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