Authorities race to contain major oil spill in the Pacific - DW News

Typhoon Gaemi made landfall in China on Thursday after leaving a trail of destruction across Taiwan and causing a cargo ship to sink. The storm hit Fujian province on Thursday evening after roaring across the Chinese seaboard. Earlier, Gaemi caused the cargo ship Fu-Shun to sink off Kaohsiung Harbor in Taiwan. Nine of the crew members from Myanmar went missing in the incident, but three of them were later found washed ashore. Gaemi hit Taiwan on Wednesday, hitting the eastern Yilan County at around 12 a.m. local time (1600 GMT Wednesday). It then moved to the Taiwan Strait early on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration said.

While the intensity of the typhoon has reduced, authorities have warned residents of southern and central Taiwan that there may be flooding in the following days. About 87,000 households were without electricity as of Thursday morning, while schools, workplaces and financial markets remained closed for a second day. The superstorm brought strong winds and heavy rains to the island before its arrival, killing at least four people, according to the disaster management center — one by a falling tree and the other after part of a building fell on a car — and injuring as many as 500 others.

The storm has already affected Japan and the Philippines, enhancing the seasonal monsoon rains in Manila. The rains set off a dozen landslides and floods over five days, killing at least eight people, according to Philippine authorities. An oil tanker also sank in Manila Bay due to the heavy rains and rough seas, raising the risk of an unprecedented oil spill.