Scenes of the destruction unleashed upon Taiwan by Super Typhoon Krathon are going viral online.
The storm was the most powerful to hit the East-Asian island in nearly eight years. Although Krathon weakened slightly before making landfall, it still caused significant damage, leading to widespread power outages, flooding, and evacuations.
The southern part of the country bore the brunt of Krathon’s fury Thursday. The major port city of Kaohsiung was no exception and was the focus of some of the most dramatic footage widely shared on social media. Newsweek reached out to the Taiwanese Ministry of the Interior with a written request for comment.
This photo of a vehicle crushed by a fallen tree in Kaohsiung’s Gushan District was taken on October 4 by Douglas Gass, a South African entrepreneur living in the port city. Kaohsiung and other southern areas bore the brunt of Super Typhoon Krathong, the most destructive storm to hit Taiwan in years.
Douglas Gass
One such video, recorded from a 7-Eleven security camera in the western district of Gushan at 1:05 p.m. shows shows three employees pressing against the glass door in a desperate attempt to keep it shut.
However, a strong gust, blows the door off its hinges and sends the employees flying toward the back of the store, along with shelves of goods. The three were not seriously injured, according to local media.
A monitor footage shows the power of Typhoon Krathon at 7-Eleven Shennong store, Gushan District, Kaohsiung City. pic.twitter.com/GhCFgk5fnC
— 彩T | 暫停活動中🎡 🎪 🎉 (@knocknock_orit) October 4, 2024
Convenience stores are often one of the few businesses that stay open in Taiwan during typhoons, offering a final chance for people in urgent need to stock up on supplies. In another video making the rounds, a man can be seen creeping forward in a crouching position, shielding himself with his umbrella, as he attempts to cross the street.
Elsewhere in the city of 3 million, roofs were captured being blown off metal homes that were built years ago on top of existing apartment buildings. It is now illegally in Taiwan to construct such low-budget abodes, which are considered unsafe.
Down at the city’s port, a camera caught shipping containers behind knocked off the top of a stack like so many toy blocks.
The capital of Taipei, on the other end of the island and surrounded by mountains, was relatively untouched, but other parts of the north did not emerge unscathed.
In neighboring Keelung, footage surfaced of floodwaters coursing through the seaside city. One such video shows two people struggling to recover a fallen motorbike in knee muddy, knee-deep water.
Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration reported that Krathon has weakened, and the agency has lifted its typhoon warning for the affected areas.
Almost 100,000 homes, most in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County to the east, were still without power by Friday, according to reports. Another 129,000 in Kaohsiung were cut off from their water supply.
The death toll that day stood at two, with 667 reported injured and one person said to be missing, according to Taiwan’s fire authorities.
