Residents in the southern city of Tainan brace for Typhoon Krathon's arrival. The storm path is unusual, as it is coming toward Taiwan from the southwest. The city's government has urged residents to stay vigilant and those living in flood-prone areas to move to safer ground.
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00:0082-year-old shopkeeper, Hu Yuxia, is determined to stay here in the home she's lived in for
00:07more than 60 years, despite a storm warning and local officials' advice for her to move
00:13to safer ground.
00:14Hu lives alone, just metres from the waterfront in Taiwan's southern port city of Tainan.
00:19I'm afraid to be alone. I live alone. I'm afraid. I'm afraid to hide in there.
00:28The full force of Typhoon Kraton is set to hit here in just a few hours, following a
00:36rare trajectory coming in from the west around Taiwan's southern tip to strike large urban
00:41centres like Tainan.
00:43Close to 70,000 people live in this ancient port district of Anping. Many of their houses
00:49are close to harbours and rivers and therefore liable to flooding. The local government has
00:53been keeping residents updated on the typhoon's progress and there's even an app for them
00:58to check rising water levels.
01:01Residents have been advised to stock three days of food and supplies, and should they
01:05need to flee their homes, 16 evacuation centres have been set up to accommodate them.
01:10More than a dozen pumps across this district are moving water out of drains in an attempt
01:17to keep streets clear.
01:18Taiwan is prone to both earthquakes and typhoons. Communities here regularly practise how to
01:32respond to disasters. But its trajectory makes this typhoon different from others, and could
01:39bring a rare storm surge to cities in the country's south-west.
01:43Most typhoons which are impacting Kaohsiung, Tainan, they've already gone across the central
01:48mountain range and are severely weakened. It's going to be coming right off the ocean
01:53and impacting these areas, so it's going to be in very good condition. The typhoon is
01:59still going to have its very strong circulation, so my hunch is that these areas are going
02:05to experience typhoon conditions which are very atypical to what they usually experience
02:10as the typhoons come in from the east.
02:12It's just over two months since Taiwan's last typhoon, a storm that left 13 people
02:17dead and hundreds injured across the country. Many people here are saying they learned lessons
02:23from that battering that they are now putting into practice. But Typhoon Pratton has already
02:28proven both atypical and unpredictable, sure to test even well-prepared communities like
02:34this port of Anping. John Su, Justin Wu and Rick Lout in Tainan for Taiwan Plus.