Typhoon Soudelor wreaks havoc

Taiwan's Central News Agency reported Saturday that an eight-year-old girl and her mother had become Typhoon Soudelor's first victims when they were swept out to sea from a beach after it made landfall in the country's east-coast counties of Yiland and Hualien.

In the following hours, Soudelor continued to move west across Taiwan, packing gusts of up to 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles per hour), uprooting trees, and knocking down wind turbines. The rains also triggered mudslides in a remote village in the northern region of Taoyuan.

"Flash mudslides surged into the village. About 10 of the homes were half buried but people were evacuated last night and are in safe shelters," a spokesman for Taoyuan fire brigade told the AFP news agency.

Nationwide, authorities evacuated thousands of people as Soudelor approached and hundreds of thousands remained without electricity on Saturday.

At least two other fatalities were reported, including a firefighter who was killed after being hit by a drunk driver as he attempted to move a fallen tree in the south of the country.

In the capital, Taipei, city authorities shut down some bus and underground train services and the winds ripped large metal streets and rods off a partially constructed stadium.

Soudelor was expected to leave Taiwan in the next few hours, before it is expected to make landfall on China's eastern coast in the province of Fujian, where the government has already begun evacuating local residents.

pfd/jlw ( Reuters, AFP)