Taiwan has issued a land warning on Tuesday and evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Fung-wong which, while weakening, is expected to dump large amounts of rain on the island's mountainous east coast.
Fung-wong is forecast to make landfall on Taiwan's southwestern coast around the major port city of Kaohsiung on Wednesday, after powering through the Philippines as a much stronger system and killing six people.
It is then expected to cross the bottom part of Taiwan and enter the Pacific Ocean along the coast of the sparsely populated eastern counties of Taitung and Hualien.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, writing on his Facebook page, said people should not head into the mountains or go to the coast or other potentially dangerous areas.
In September, 18 people died in Hualien in flooding unleashed by an earlier typhoon.
The government has already ordered evacuations in the town of Guangfu, the scene of those deadly floods, and said a total of 3,337 people in four counties and cites had been moved to safer areas.
Hualien closed schools and offices on Tuesday, as did the neighbouring county of Yilan.
The typhoon will not directly affect the northern city of Hsinchu, home to TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker.
Russian drones, missiles strike Ukraine killing 11, wounding over 100
Gunman kills six family members in eastern Iowa, police say
Trump says no Israeli troops will go to Beirut after call with Netanyahu
Moderna and other groups get $60 million to develop Ebola vaccine
Bus driver charged with five counts of manslaughter in Virginia highway wreck
