Typhoon Kong-rey, the largest storm to hit Taiwan since 1996, is lashing the country with dangerous winds and rain. The typhoon made landfall in Taiwan's south early Thursday afternoon. Taiwan's emergency command is warning that the most severe conditions are expected throughout the second half of Thursday. The storm is expected to weaken and leave Taiwan on Friday.
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NewsTranscript
00:00As Typhoon Kongre makes landfall, the city centre of Taitung is experiencing some of
00:06that storm's most extreme weather. Gusts here are reaching up to 150km an hour, those winds
00:13bringing down trees, knocking over motorcycles, ripping parts of buildings across the city
00:18centre. On the coast we've seen waves reaching up to 8 and even 10 metres high and this is
00:24also a big agricultural centre. Just outside of the city we've seen fields flooded, banana
00:31plantations with all the trees knocked down by those winds. The government here has closed
00:38schools and offices for the day, they've been warning everyone to stay indoors and they've
00:43put emergency services on the highest alert. Earlier we spoke to people that had to brave
00:51this storm and go out.
01:17Taitung's county government is reporting that there's already been a handful of injuries
01:21as many as 1000 people have been forced to leave their homes and 10,000 homes have been
01:26left without power. This area is set to continue to be battered for the next few hours as the
01:32storm moves inland. The full extent of the damage may not be evident for some time. Greg
01:39Lowatt, Ryan Wu and Chris Ma have been tied on a Taiwan bus.