TAIPEI, Taiwan — Typhoon Champi churned close to Taiwan’s north-east coast on Friday, shutting schools, offices and the stock exchange and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights across East Asia, BBC News and CBC News reported.
Work and classes were suspended in nearly all of Taiwan’s 22 counties and cities, with only the outlying Kinmen archipelago carrying on as usual, the BBC said. One person died after being swept away by waves, authorities said, while 171 people were injured and about 1,000 evacuated.
Forecasters said up to 90 centimetres (35 inches) of rain could fall on the north-east through Saturday, with rainfall peaking Saturday morning. Champi was packing gusts of 191 km/h (119 mph) on Friday afternoon. Weather agencies in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan expect the eye to pass without making landfall, though a Central Weather Administration forecaster told Reuters that could not be ruled out if the storm “stalls, loops or wobbles.”
In Japan, nearly 8,400 households lost power in Okinawa and more than 160 flights were cancelled across four Japanese airlines. Waves also battered Batanes in the northern Philippines.
Earlier this week Champi became the planet’s strongest storm of the year, with maximum sustained winds of 298 km/h (185 mph). It is Japan’s 30th typhoon of 2026 — the first time since 2013 the country has seen so many — in a season the BBC linked to an unusually strong El Niño.
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