The full force of Typhoon Krathon hit Taiwan's southern port city of Kaohsiung. The eye of the storm brought torrential rain and gusts of more than 200 kph.
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00:00Let's go over to Rick Glower, who's rejoining us from Kaohsiung.
00:03Rick, you were there when the storm hit. How's it looking now?
00:10Well, the storm now moving away from Kaohsiung, wind and rain becoming noticeably less in the
00:14last couple of hours, but it's left behind a lot of flooding in the city. This flooding here is
00:20just one of a thousand disaster incidents reported around the city. That's because the core, the very
00:26centre of Typhoon Kraton hit Kaohsiung with that strong eyewall, with those huge winds of up to
00:33200 and more than 200 kilometres an hour. They brought down trees, ripped parts of buildings,
00:39brought down telephone poles and traffic lights. The government all day urging people to stay
00:45inside to minimise injuries, but we know that there's been around 100 in the city itself,
00:50injured people. And we've spent the day reporting on a city that doesn't often face down a typhoon
00:56just like this one. A city under siege from a deadly storm. Typhoon Kraton makes landfall here
01:06in Taiwan's industrial port city of Kaohsiung, home to more than two million people.
01:20Most typhoons hit Taiwan from the east, losing strength by the time they reach Kaohsiung on
01:33the southern coast. Typhoon Kraton is on an unusual trajectory, coming in from the southwest
01:40to strike here directly, the first time in decades. Gusts have been reaching more than
01:45200 kilometres per hour near the harbour front of Kaohsiung, a record for this city. Extreme
01:51winds have been bringing down trees and traffic lights and heavy rain has turned roads into rivers.
01:57The city government has closed schools and businesses here for a third day.
02:01Evacuation centres have been opened and emergency messages sent to residents' phones,
02:05reminding them of the typhoon's destructive power.
02:15Kraton has puzzled forecasters, taking a rare path and changing in speed, direction and intensity
02:28as it approached the coast. As the storm system heads inland, it is expected to weaken without
02:34the ocean to fuel it, leaving Kaohsiung bearing the brunt of this unusual typhoon's power.
02:40As the storms die down, we've seen more and more people coming out on the streets
02:45and start the clear-up operation. A lot of people trying to move debris away from
02:50the drains to help floodwaters like this recede. For many people here, as the night draws in,
02:56they hope that the worst is over and that the recovery can begin.