Ilan, Taiwan: Taiwan on Wednesday shut down schools and cancelled flights as it braced for the approaching Typhoon Saola, which caused eight deaths when it swept across the Philippines.
Amid warnings of heavy rain to come, authorities evacuated nearly 600 residents from New Taipei City in the north and as many from the eastern counties of Ilan and Hualien, which look set to bear the brunt of the typhoon.
Schools and offices in the two counties were also closed, while 34 international and 21 domestic flights were cancelled, according to the Central Emergency Operation Centre.
All shipping services to and from the offshore islands were suspended.
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways said that its Taipei flight operations were suspended from 1000 GMT until at least noon on Thursday.
In the capital nearly 100,000 sandbags prepared by the government were snapped up as the Central Weather Bureau called on residents to take special precautions against torrential rain and flooding.
The bureau warned that Typhoon Saola may bring 1.5 metres of rain, prompting the defence ministry to order more than 46,000 soldiers to stand by islandwide.
The slow-moving typhoon has ditched 0.5 metres of rain in the east and north during the past day, triggering landslides that cut off roads.
As of 0930 GMT, Saola was 170 kilometres (105.4 miles) southeast of Ilan.
With a radius of 220 kilometres and packing winds gusting at up to 137 kilometres an hour, the typhoon was moving north-northwest at a speed of 10 kilometres per hour.
The storm pounded the Philippines Monday, leaving millions of people without power and forcing authorities to evacuate more than 145,000 people.
