Taiwan shuts down schools and offices as Typhoon Doksuri scrapes the island’s coast

Two of Taiwan’s largest cities have shut down schools and offices Thursday as Typhoon Doksuri brought heavy rains and winds to the island’s eastern and southern coast. Doksuri weakened further on Thursday, with sustained winds of 155 kph (96 mph) and gusts of up to 190 kph (118 mph), according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau. The typhoon’s center will not hit Taiwan’s mainland, but its outlying bands will still bring stronger winds and rains Thursday afternoon. In the south, port city Kaohsiung and the ancient capital Tainan announced that offices and schools will be closed Thursday. Hualien and Taitung counties in the east have also shuttered schools and offices. Kaohsuing also evacuated some 300 residents who lived in a mountainous part of the district, according to the semi-official Central News Agency. The storm temporarily left tens of thousands of households without power in Kaohsiung and Tainan, although most of them have had their power restored as of 11 a.m. Thursday, according to the Taiwan Power Company. The storm will travel through the Taiwan Strait during the day Thursday and make landfall in China’s Fujian province on Friday. The typhoon swept through northern Philippine provinces with ferocious wind and rain Wednesday, leaving at least six people dead and displacing thousands of others as it blew roofs off houses, flooded low-lying villages and triggered dozens of landslides.