Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/08
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Aug. 8 (CNA) Typhoon Soudelor made landfall in eastern Taiwan’s Hualien County early Saturday, pummeling the island with strong gusts and torrential rain, the Central Weather Bureau said.

The streets in Taipei, which is in the northwest of the island, were strewn with fallen trees and debris as initial reports said several people were injured around the island, some of whom were hit by falling signboards.

The eye of Soudelor hit the land in Sioulin Township at 4:40 a.m., and as of 6 a.m., the storm was centered 60 km west of Hualien, making its way across the island’s central mountains at a speed of 19 km per hour in a west-northwesterly direction, the bureau said.

It is packing maximum sustained winds of 173 kph, with gusts reaching 209 kph, it said.     [FULL  STORY]