Typhoon Champi hits Taiwan, killing one and injuring hundreds | Climate crisis news
Authorities are warning of “destructive winds” and urging residents to take shelter as the storm passes through the northeast of the island.
Published on October 23, 2026
Typhoon Champi hit Taiwan, killing one person and injuring more than 500 others, as authorities warned of “destructive winds” and ordered people to stay indoors.
The storm swept across the northeast of the island on Friday, toppling trees, triggering brief flooding, disrupting power lines and forcing more than 5,000 people to evacuate their homes.
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Emergency crews were dispatched Saturday to restore power to about 56,000 homes still without power, authorities said. Most stores in northern and central Taiwan remained closed for a second day as the storm moved away from the northeast and headed north.
Champi is heading to China and Japan, leading to flight cancellations in the region.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Transport and Communications said 259 flights were canceled, an improvement from Friday when the number was nearly 1,000.
Champi was briefly a super typhoon with winds of nearly 300 kilometers per hour (186 miles per hour), but has since weakened. The US Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported maximum winds of 185 km/h (115 mph) on Friday.
The worst is yet to be expected on Saturday. Up to 900 mm (35 inches) of rain could fall between Thursday and Saturday, with the northeast hit hardest, Taiwan’s Central Meteorological Administration (CWA) said. More than 400 mm fell in Yilan County on Friday.
The forecaster also said the storm weakened overnight as it passed around the city of Yilan, which has received 650mm of rain since Thursday.
CWA forecaster Lu Kuo-chen said the typhoon could slow down near the northeastern tip of the island, prolonging its impact.
Residents reacted differently.
“It was very terrifying around midnight,” a retired teacher surnamed Lin told the Reuters news agency as he inspected felled banana trees in his garden in Yilan. “It was a sleepless night. I haven’t seen anything like it in many years.”
Taipei resident Thomas Wang, 70, said the storm looked like something out of the horror movie “Poltergeist.”
Martha Wang, a 55-year-old secretary, told the AFP news agency she feared she would be “swept away” when her scooter crashed onto a bridge in New Taipei City.
William Yu, a 55-year-old librarian, told AFP that the storm “was not stronger than other typhoons.”
About 8,400 homes on Japan’s Okinawa Islands were without power as of Friday afternoon, according to the Okinawa Electric Power Company. The government said two people were injured in the typhoon that hit Japan’s southernmost prefecture.
Champi is expected to hover near Okinawa, then the east coast of China, before turning northeast toward mainland Japan.
Chinese authorities warned of “strong winds and heavy rain” as the typhoon approaches the east coast of mainland China, state broadcaster reported. Parts of Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang could experience heavy or even torrential rain.
Some train services were suspended and tens of thousands of people evacuated in Shanghai.
El Nino weather event
Champi is the latest storm of a season in the Pacific supercharged by El Niño.
The United Nations said Wednesday that El Niño, a natural cycle that warms the tropical Pacific, was becoming unusual.
“The current El Nino episode could be of unprecedented magnitude. Literally off the charts of monitoring we have used over the past four decades,” said Celeste Saulo, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization.
It is expected to peak in December, with an impact lasting through 2027 and beyond.
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