Typhoon

Powerful Super Typhoon Usagi to skirt Taiwan, Philippines

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Super Typhoon Usagi is expected to whip up torrential rains and destructive winds when it nears the northern Philippines and southern Taiwan.

The most powerful typhoon of the year has ferocious gusts of up to 184 miles per hour. It was expected to skirt both regions.

Usagi had maximum sustained winds of 150 mph on Friday evening local time and was about 373 miles southeast of Taipei, Taiwan's capital, according to the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center. A storm achieves super typhoon status when its sustained winds are at least 150 mph.

The huge storm was on track to pass near the Batanes Islands, the northernmost part of the Philippines, as it moved across the Luzon Strait, close to Taiwan's southernmost Hengchun peninsula.

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In Taiwan, hundreds of people were evacuated from flood-prone areas near cities and in remote mountainous regions. Torrential rains were forecast for all of the eastern coast and the south.

Usagi was projected to push on toward southern China, with its outer bands slamming into the Guangdong-Hong Kong coastline on Sunday. The storm is expected to weaken, and by Sunday is projected to have maximum sustained winds of 98 mph.

Usagi had a massive diameter of 680 miles, with its outer rain bands extending across the main northern Philippine island of Luzon and southern Taiwan. Forecasters predicted 24-hour rainfall accumulation of nearly 20 inches near its center.

In the Philippines, the Batanes Islands were placed under the highest storm alert, while lower warnings were raised in at least 15 northern provinces where officials warned of flash floods, landslides and storm surges.