Typhoon Haitang lashed communities along Taiwan's northeast coast on Monday as officials ordered schools, government offices and financial markets to close. Torrential rains whipped through the capital Taipei throughout the day while powerful winds uprooted trees and dislodged billboards in the northern part of the island. The storm's full impact was due in the early evening when its eye was forecast to pass a point just south of Taipei. Taipei's normally pulsating streets were almost deserted, and air and rail service came to a standstill. Television pictures from the eastern coastal city of Hualien showed devastated storefronts and flooded streets. Heavy waves endangered ports at Hualien and Suao, about 70 kilometers (44 miles) to the north, and flooding threatened low-lying areas along the coast. There were no immediate reports of casualties. By mid afternoon, the storm had dumped more than 300 millimeters (12 inches) of rain across a broad swathe of northern Taiwan. Heavy winds blasted out storefront windows and spread debris in Hualien and other eastern communities, The Associated Press reported.
