Taiwan battens down against oncoming typhoon

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

TAIPEI (AFP) — Workers mounted sandbag barriers and fishing boats returned to port as Taiwan braced for a pounding from Typhoon Fung-wong, which forecasters said was picking up momentum.

Taiwan is still reeling from storms earlier this month which left 20 people dead and six missing, and the Central Weather Bureau warned residents to take extra precautions against the oncoming typhoon.

Schools, offices and the financial markets will be closed Monday, and railway traffic and flights partially suspended, as the island braces itself.

With a radius of 220 kilometres (132 miles), the typhoon was measured packing gusts of 137 kilometres per hour.

At 1100 GMT, the eye of the typhoon was around 220 kilometres southeast of Hualien city in Taiwan's east, where...