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Bloomberg
Taiwan warned businesses and schools to prepare for extreme conditions as Severe Typhoon Maria closes in on the island, disrupting flights and curtailing futures trading.
The typhoon could bring strong winds and heavy rains to northern and central Taiwan, Central Weather Bureau said in statement on Tuesday. Several local governments in the northern Taiwan including Taipei City, the island’s political and business capital, have announced closures of offices and schools from 4 pm Airlines, including Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., Air China Ltd. and EVA Airways Corp., have canceled 161 international flights and 117 on domestic routes on Tuesday, Taipei-based Civil Aeronautics Administration said.
The weather authority issued a sea warning and a land warning on July 9, advising residents to take precautionary measures given risks of floods and landslides. It is currently unclear whether the storm will make direct landfall in Taiwan. The weather bureau forecasts it to be at its closest on Tuesday evening and early Wednesday.
Maria, with sustained winds of up to 191 kilometres per hour and gusts of up to 234 kilometres per hour, was categorised as a typhoon by the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center. It was 490 kilometres east of Yilan on Taiwan’s northeast coast on Tuesday local time, the bureau said.
The storm is heading west-northwest with decreasing speed of 28 kilometers per hour and comes amid extreme weather in other parts of Asia. Japan is grappling with the fallout from historic rainfall in the country’s west which killed at least 110 people.