Taiwan braces for Typhoon Aere
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Financial markets, schools and businesses in Taipei and other parts of Taiwan have been shut as a strong typhoon closes in on the island.
Typhoon Aere left one person dead and three sailors missing after a Hong Kong fishing boat capsized outside the northern harbor of Keelung as it tried to seek shelter from the storm.
Aere, with maximum winds of 130 km (80 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 165 km per hour, was forecast to cause havoc in the north and east of Taiwan later Tuesday and Wednesday.
At 8 a.m. (0000 GMT), Aere -- which is the Marshallese word for "storm" -- was 260 km (162 miles) east of Taipei and moving slowly northwest at 11 km (7 miles) per hour.
Workers moved sandbags and built fortified embankments on Tuesday as those living near rivers and lakes braced for severe flooding.
In Taipei, the stock exchange, foreign exchange market and government agencies were closed on Tuesday and the city government was yet to decide whether to allow businesses to reopen on Wednesday.
Though some domestic flights were cancelled, international flights were mostly unaffected.
Part of Taiwan is still reeling from Typhoon Mindulle, which killed at least 22 people last month. A further 14 are missing and feared dead.
Three years ago, one of Taiwan's deadliest years for storms, Typhoon Toraji killed 200 people. A few months later, Typhoon Nari caused Taipei's worst flooding on record and left 100 people dead.
While Aere was churning towards Taiwan on Tuesday, a more powerful system, Typhoon Chaba, skipped past Guam and curved northwards towards Japan's Okinawa islands.
Chaba was packing sustained winds of 150 knots (277 km per hour) on Tuesday, after it passed about 85 miles (135 kilometers) northeast of Guam on Sunday.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
