The storm, categorised at the second-strongest typhoon level by Taiwan’s weather bureau, was heading towards the southern Taiwan Strait with maximum winds of 191km (118 miles) per hour on Thursday morning.
Tens of thousands flee as Typhoon Talim lashes China, Vietnam
listDoksuri has lost some of its strength since it lashed the northern Philippine coastline on Wednesday, bursting banks of rivers, flooding low-lying villages and unleashing dozens of landslides.
In the Buguias town in Benguet province, a landslide buried a house killing a mother, her child and two other children. In the nearby resort city of Baguio, a 17-year-old teen was killed when soil loosened by heavy rains buried his house, officials said.
In Isabela province, also in the north, a woman selling bread on a bicycle cart died when she was hit in the head by a falling coconut tree, a police report said.
In Taiwan on Thursday, the weather bureau issued wind and rain warnings for the southern part of the island, including the major port city of Kaohsiung where businesses and schools were closed and landslide warnings issued.
Fishing boats are seen moored at Gaoqi fishing port as typhoon Doksuri approaches, in Xiamen, Fujian province, China July 26, 2023.
Fishing boats are seen moored at Gaoqi fishing port as typhoon Doksuri approaches, in Xiamen, Fujian province, China July 26, 2023 [CNSphoto via Reuters]
All domestic flights were suspended on the island while a handful of international flights were cancelled. Railway services between southern and eastern Taiwan were shut.
More than 4,000 people were evacuated as a precaution, mostly in the mountainous southern and eastern Taiwan, where nearly 0.7 metres of rainfall was recorded in some areas and up to one metre of rain was forecast.
The storm had cut power from more than 15,700 households across Taiwan, but the majority of them had since been restored. Southern Taiwan on Thursday shut businesses and schools while airlines cancelled hundreds of flights amid warnings of landslides and floods as Typhoon Doksuri churned past the island en route to China where it will make landfall later this week.
“The police and military force will assist in the effort of forced evacuation if needed,” he said, pointing to threats by torrential rain in mountainous areas.
The storm is expected to make landfall in southern China on Friday morning.
China’s National Meteorological Centre on Wednesday upgraded its typhoon warning alert from orange to red, the highest advisory among the four-tier colour-coded warning system.
Authorities also urged people to shore up on food, necessities and candles as a precautionary measure.
Doksuri would be the second typhoon to make landfall in China in less than two weeks after Talim slammed into Guangdong province on the evening of July 17.More than 4,000 passengers were stranded at various ports in the country after sea travel was suspended, the Philippine coast guard said.
Storm warnings are in place in many parts of the northern island of Luzon, which is home to about half of the Philippines' 110 million population. Authorities have warned of storm surges, landslides, and damage to infrastructure.
Doksuri, locally known as Egay, is the fifth storm to hit the Southeast Asian nation this year, which is hit by an average 20 typhoons each year. Scientists have warned that global warming will only make storms wetter, windier and more violent.Categorised as a super typhoon on Tuesday, Doksuri had weakened slightly on Wednesday. It is expected to brush past Taiwan and make landfall in China's Fujian province on Friday, according to the Philippines weather bureau.