Typhoon targets Taiwan after swiping Philippines

TAIPEI, Aug 17 (Reuters) A typhoon gathered strength and set course for Taiwan today after side-swiping the Philippines where it left parts of the capital, Manila, under chest-high water.

Typhoon Sepat was expected to smack into the cities of Kaohsiung and Taichung, both with populations of over 1 million, early on Saturday and then pummel the Chinese coast, according to Tropical Storm Risk (www.tropicalstormrisk.com).

As of 0600 hrs, the typhoon was 410 km southeast of Taiwan and moving northwest at 18 kph with sustained winds of 184 kph and gusts up to 227 kph, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said. It issued a land warning last evening.

China's southeastern province of Fujian was bracing for the typhoon to land on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Typhoons draw strength from the warm waters of the South China Sea and regularly target the Philippines, Japan, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong over the summer, sometimes with catastrophic effect.

Sepat was expected to reach southern Taiwan on Saturday morning as a category 4 typhoon, Tropical Storm Risk said. But local media said it could gather enough strength to exceed the five-tier rating scale.

In Manila and the northern Philippines, residents braced for more flooding as the typhoon gathered strength northeast of the archipelago en route to Taiwan.

The cyclone brought the Philippine capital to a near standstill on Wednesday as it exacerbated monsoon rains, causing flooding chest-deep in places.

No deaths have been reported.

Major roads outside Manila remained flooded with water up to 1.5 metres deep in places and officials in the neighbouring province of Rizal ordered the evacuation of around 100 people after a landslide.

Disaster officials warned that the northern tip of the Philippine archipelago could suffer crop losses, the uprooting of trees and disruption of power as the typhoon rumbles past.

Reuters SZ VP0756