Strong typhoon slams Taiwan, China over weekend

Typhoon Krosa slamed into Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rains on Saturday forcing hundreds to evacuate and cutting power to thousands as it headed toward mainland China.

In China, authorities in the eastern province of Zhejiang ordered officials back to work from their National Day vacation to prepare for the storm. Disaster authorities said the storm drenched all of northern Taiwan, including the capital Taipei, keeping people indoors as work, classes and scheduled events were cancelled for safety reasons.

British typhoon tracking system Tropical Storm Risk called Krosa a category 4 typhoon. This is the 15th storm of the season.

Krosa was 160km off the coast of Taiwan as of 10am Singapore time on Saturday after picking up strength throughout the week, and was packing sustained winds of 184km/h and gusts of up to 227km/h.

Tropical Storm Risk said Krosa was expected to weaken to a category 3 storm by early Sunday morning and a category 2 storm by the middle of Sunday, when it was expected to brush Zhejiang province of China, before heading north-east towards Fukuoka.

My Friends will be touring Taiwan next week, hope this won't affect their planned free & easy trip.