TAIPEIL: Northern Taiwan on Thursday shut businesses and schools while airlines cancelled dozens of flights as the slow-moving Typhoon Khanun skirted past the island's northeast amid warnings of floods and high winds.
Typhoon Khanun, categorised by Taiwan's weather bureau as the second-strongest typhoon level, slowly headed towards its northeastern coast with maximum winds of 198 kilometres per hour (123 miles per hour).
As of 9.15am Taipei time (0115 GMT), the eye of the typhoon was 360 km off Taipei in the East China Sea, heading in a westerly direction at around 5 kph.
The storm was expected to brush past Taiwan's northern coast late on Thursday before making a sharp turn to the northeast on Friday, bringing total rainfall of up to 0.6 metre (2 feet) in mountainous central Taiwan and 0.3 meter of rain on the mountains near Taipei.
Northern cities including the capital Taipei shut businesses and schools. Taiwan's stock and foreign exchange markets were also closed.
Nearly 40 international flights have been cancelled while all domestic ferry lines were suspended.
In Taipei, subway services were reduced while hundreds of soldiers were on standby in nearby cities for disaster response.
The storm hit power lines in Japan's popular tourist destination Okinawa earlier this week, knocking out electricity to more than 200,000 households and killing one man.
Typhoon Khanun comes just a week after Typhoon Doksuri brought heavy rains and strong winds to the Taiwan's south.
Japan hit by typhoon
In southern Japan, some 166,000 households in southwestern Japan's Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures were out of power Thursday morning as slow-moving Typhoon Khanun continued to bring heavy rain and gusty winds, prolonging the damage potential.
The storm in the East China Sea was heading northwest at a slow speed with gusts 222 kph (138 mph), according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. It was projected to change direction to move east towards the country's mainland through Tuesday, but its path was not determined, public broadcaster NHK said.
Two people were reported dead in Okinawa, a popular tourist destination some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) southwest of Japan's capital Tokyo, as of Thursday morning, NHK said. A total of 41 people in Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures were injured, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
A general view of downtown in Naha, where some part of city has power blackout due to typhoon Khanun, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan in this photo taken by Kyodo on Thursday. (Photo: Reuters)
Naha Airport, located in Okinawa's capital city and the main gateway to the popular tourist destination, resumed operations on Thursday after shutting down for two days. Still, 304 flights were cancelled, the transport ministry said.
Local utility Okinawa Electric Power Co said 160,040 households, or about a quarter of all houses covered, were experiencing power outages as of 10.36am Japan time (0136 GMT), according to its website.
In addition, power supply was down for about 6,550 households in Amami islands in Kagoshima prefecture, north of Okinawa, as of 9am, according to Kyushu Electric Power .
Typhoon Khanun also forced schools and businesses to shut in northern Taiwan on Thursday, with nearly 40 international flights being cancelled.