A storm that could prove to be the strongest of the year is bearing down on Taiwan.
Super Typhoon Soudelor is a category 5 storm, the strongest level for a storm. The storm has been reported to have sustained winds of 160 m.p.h. and gusts of 180 m.p.h.
NASA has been tracking the storm and says that it is tracking toward northern Taiwan and mainland China. They predict the storm will weaken before making the landfall sometime Thursday on Taiwan.
“There is growing concern that Taiwan and the southern Ryukyu Islands will have to contend with Soudelor as early as Thursday night or Friday with impacts lasting into early next week across eastern China,” AccuWeather meteorologist Eric Leister said to the USA Today.
The storm already has caused major damage on the island of Saipan north of Guam. The storm crossed the island as a Category 2 storm on Sunday night. U.S. officials have been rushing relief supplies to Guam to take to Saipan.
Thousands of residents of Saipan are in shelters.
Local officials say it’s a miracle anyone survived the crash of a TransAsia flight in Taiwan on Wednesday that left at least 26 people dead.
A man driving on Taiwan’s National Freeway No. 1 captured the crash on video which made it appear the engines failed causing the plane to fall out of the sky. The plane barely missed the main highway before clipping a taxi and the edge of a bridge on the way into a river.
Officials say that 18 people are still missing in the river but that 15 people were rescued and rushed to hospitals including a toddler. The driver of the taxi and passenger were also injured in the incident.
Local Taiwan broadcasters played a recording of the plane’s last contact with the control tower where the pilots repeat “Mayday” three times. The pilots offered to details as to what may have caused the crash.
TransAsia director Peter Chen told reporters that plane was one of the newest in their fleet and had been in service for less than a year. The pilot reportedly had 4,900 hours of flight experience, leading officials to say it’s likely mechanical failure was the cause over pilot error.
The strongest storm on Earth in 2013 is bearing down on Taiwan and Hong Kong.
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