Gaemi stops flights between Macau and Taiwan

People walk through a street flooded from monsoon rains worsened by offshore typhoon Gaemi in Manila, Philippines, yesterday

Residents and travelers face disruptions as Typhoon Gaemi approaches, with 14 flights between Macau and Taiwan already canceled.

The cancelations include seven departures and seven arrivals on flights operated by Air Macau, Starlux and Eva Air, scheduled yesterday and today.

Air Macau announced passengers with booked flights to and from the affected regions between July 24 to July 26 can reschedule their travel plans.

The affected routes include flights to and from Xiamen, Fuzhou, Shanghai Hongqiao, Shanghai Pudong, Nanjing, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Taipei and Kaohsiung.

Typhoon Gaemi has forced the cancelation of 462 flights in Taiwan yesterday morning.

According to a forecast made by the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG), the high temperatures may trigger showers and thunderstorms with strong gusty wind in the afternoon and evening today.

“Due to the influence of the outer subsiding air of the super typhoon “Gaemi” near Taiwan region, the weather in Macau will be very hot [today],” the SMG said.

“According to latest forecast track, Gaemi is expected to make landfall in Fujian Province tonight and then move west to northwest inland,” it added.

Macau airport’s website shows cancelled flights to Taipei, yesterday

Yesteday, Taiwan shuttered offices, schools and tourist sites across the island ahead of a powerful typhoon that already worsened seasonal rains in the Philippines, killed at least 13 people and displaced 600,000.

Typhoon Gaemi’s outer skirt was bringing heavy rain to much of Taiwan, where a direct landfall was expected last night in the northern county of Ylan. Fishing boats were recalled to port amid turbulent seas, while air travelers were rushing to board overseas flights before the storm arrives, amid numerous cancellations.

One person was reported killed and dozens injured by trees that were toppled by the storm, while shelters were opened in vulnerable areas, particularly in Taiwan’s mountainous center and east where heavy rainfall is prone to cause landslides and flooding. Streets were inundated in numerous towns and cities and high winds knocked down pedestrians and riders of the island’s ubiquitous motor scooters.

Yesterday morning, the typhoon was east of Taiwan moving at 18 kilometers per hour with maximum sustained wind speeds of 183 kilometers per hour, the Central Weather Administration said. In the capital Taipei, heavy rain was falling, but high winds had not yet arrived.

Gaemi, which was called Carina in the Philippines, did not make landfall in the archipelago but enhanced its seasonal monsoon rains. The rains set off at least a dozen landslides and floods over five days, killing at least eight and displacing 600,000 people, including 35,000 who went to emergency shelters, the Philippines’ disaster risk mitigation agency said.

A landslide buried a rural shanty Tuesday in the mountainside town of Agoncillo in Batangas province, and the bodies of a pregnant woman and three children, aged 9 to 15, were dug out yesterday morning. VC/AP