A satellite shot of Super Typhoon Mangkhut, currently barreling down on the Philippines and Hong Kong.
Lessons learned from last week's typhoon Jebi lead to early planning as the island prepares for the worstTaiwan is bracing for super typhoon Mangkhut, described by local weathermen as one of the strongest this year, which may hit the self-ruled island on the weekend.
Mindful of the power of Jebi, which killed at least 11 people and left a trail of destruction in Japan last week, the island's government had already started preparing for Mangkhut, even before it was upgraded to a super typhoon on Tuesday, a government spokeswoman said.
Packing maximum winds of 200km per hour, Mangkhut is moving at a speed of 21km per hour in a westerly direction, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau.
As of Wednesday morning, the typhoon was spotted 1,865km east-southeast of Elunabi, the southernmost tip of the island.
"If there is no change in its direction, we will not rule out the possibility of issuing a sea warning on Friday afternoon," said Cheng Chuan-fang, weather bureau forecaster.
If the typhoon maintains its westward direction, it could strengthen further and whip the southern and south-eastern parts of the island between Friday night and Saturday morning, she said.
Comment: Meanwhile the mayor of DC followed in the footsteps of the Carolinas, Maryland and Virginia by declaring a state of emergency in preparation for Hurricane Florence, a category 4 storm expected to hit the US East coast this week reports
RT.
Roughly one million people have been ordered to evacuate from South Carolina's entire coastline, while more than 245,000 Virginians were
issued a mandatory evacuation in preparation for "potential catastrophic flooding", said Governor Ralph Northam.
Florence is now a Category 4 hurricane, packing winds of up to 140mph (224kph). It is expected to make landfall in the US, Thursday as an "extremely dangerous" hurricane according to the National Hurricane Center.
The agency has warned of "life-threatening" storm surges along the south-eastern seaboard and freshwater flooding due to a "prolonged and exceptionally heavy rainfall event." Florence could be the worst hurricane to hit the Carolinas in over 60 years since category 4 hurricane 'Hazel' struck in 1954.
Comment: Also recently in the neighboring country of India lightning strikes killed one person in Meghalaya and two in West Bengal.