KAOHSIUNG (AFP) — Typhoon “Podul” slammed into southeastern Taiwan on Wednesday, with powerful winds and heavy rain lashing the island.

The typhoon had wind gusts of 191 kilometers per hour as it made landfall in Taitung County at around 1 p.m., the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said.

Podul is expected to sweep across the island and into the Taiwan Strait later Wednesday, battering central and southern areas still recovering from storms last month.

More than 5,500 people living in the typhoon’s path have been evacuated from their homes, while fishermen have secured their boats.

“We are worried about this typhoon,” Kaohsiung fisherman Huang Wei told Agence France-Presse as he used more ropes to tie down his boat and checked on other vessels hours ahead of Podul making landfall.

“We had already made general typhoon preparations yesterday, but this morning I woke up and saw news reports that the typhoon has intensified to be as strong as the last, (Typhoon) Krathon,” Huang said.

“Krathon” slammed into Kaohsiung in October, with wind gusts of 162 kph.

Typhoon “Podul” is expected to dump torrential rain across mountainous areas of Kaohsiung City and neighboring Pingtung County, as well as lightly populated Hualien and Taitung counties, the CWA said.

The CWA expects Kaohsiung and Pingtung could be hit with a cumulative 400 to 600 millimeters of rain from Tuesday to Thursday.

All domestic flights across the island of 23 million people have been canceled for Wednesday, along with dozens of international journeys.

High-speed rail services on the west coast have been reduced while train services in the southeast have been canceled.

Many ferry services have also been suspended, and businesses and schools across the south are closed.

More than 31,500 soldiers were ready to assist in typhoon preparations as well as rescue and relief efforts, disaster officials said.

Typhoon “Danas,” which hit Taiwan in early July, killed two people and injured hundreds as the storm dumped more than 500mm of rain across the south over a weekend.

That was followed by torrential rain from 28 July to 4 August, with some areas recording more than Taiwan’s rainfall of 2.1 meters for 2024.