BREAKING STORM NEWSTAIWAN
Typhoon Warning
Image: Waves smash against the northern coast near Keelung
TAIPEI (AFP) — Authorities in southern Taiwan shuttered schools, suspended ferry services and cancelled outdoor events as the island braced Friday for Typhoon Krosa, expected to hit over the weekend.
Offices and schools on Orchid Island, off Taiwan's coast, were closed, while ferries linking Taiwan and several offshore islands were cancelled.
With a radius of 300 kilometres (186 miles), Krosa, meaning crane in the Khmer language, was 440 kilometres east-southeast of Oluanpi, the southernmost tip of Taiwan, at 1:15 pm (0515 GMT), the central weather bureau said.
Packing winds gusting up to 184 kilometres per hour, it was moving northwest at a speed of 14 kilometres an hour.
The weather bureau estimated Krosa's impact would be strongest between late Saturday and early Sunday. It could dump up to 1,100 millimetres (44 inches) of rain in northern and eastern mountain regions.
