Taiwan bracing for 'near perfect' super typhoon Nepartak

A super typhoon being described as "near perfect" is expected to hit Taiwan early Friday morning.

With winds clocking in at 170 mph and gusts even higher, super typhoon Nepartak is currently the equivalent of a category 5 hurricane, and almost as strong as Soudelor, a super typhoon that slammed into Taiwan and China in 2015, killing at least 36 people and causing billions of dollars worth of damage. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense said thousands of troops have been deployed across Taiwan, and the Taiwan Power Company is estimating more than 3.1 million homes will experience power outages, CNN reports. Extreme flooding could take place in the eastern counties of Yilan and Hualien, areas where the typhoon will first make landfall, and thousands of tourists have been evacuated from the Green and Orchid Islands.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.