Typhoon Champi swept past Taiwan early Saturday, killing one person and injuring more than 500 others, as the storm weakened while uprooting trees and knocking out power across the island before turning north toward the Chinese coast.
Earlier classified as a super typhoon and among the strongest Pacific storms of the year, Champi was still packing gusts of roughly 126 kilometers per hour (78 miles per hour) near its center on Saturday, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Administration. The storm passed about 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Taiwan after glancing off the island's northeast coast in the early hours of the morning, with its forecast track showing it curving toward the Chinese coast before eventually moving on toward southern Japan.
Casualties and Widespread Outages
Taiwan's fire department said one man was killed after being swept by waves off the island of Liuqiu, while 527 other people were injured during the storm's heavy winds and torrential rain. Power utility Taipower reported that more than 167,000 homes lost electricity at the storm's peak, though most had been reconnected by Saturday. Large parts of northern and central Taiwan, including the capital Taipei, declared a second consecutive day of office and school closures, and some flights remained cancelled as the island worked through the cleanup.
A Well-Drilled Response
Taiwan is generally well prepared for typhoons, a readiness that has historically kept casualty counts low even from powerful storms; Champi's toll, while tragic, is consistent with that pattern rather than a major departure from it. Typhoons are more common in the summer months but can and do strike into autumn, as Champi's late-October arrival underscores.
With the storm now tracking away from Taiwan and toward the Chinese mainland, attention is shifting to how much it will weaken before any landfall there, and whether its remnants will carry meaningful impact as far as southern Japan in the coming days. For Taiwan, the immediate task is restoring the last pockets of power, reopening schools and offices, and resuming the flights still grounded in Champi's wake.
