2 dead as Typhoon Krathon pounds Taiwan, financial markets closed for 2nd day

A weakened and "weird" Typhoon Krathon slammed into southwestern Taiwan on Thursday, forcing a second day of closures in financial markets, while grounding hundreds of flights and having led to two deaths.

Krathon hit land as a much weaker category 1 typhoon around midday in the major port city of Kaohsiung, blowing down trees and street-lights while sending debris flying.

As pounding rain, howling winds and storm surges coincide with high tide, the government urged people to stay at home.

"It's very powerful," said Chou Yi-tang, a government official in Siaogang district, home to Kaohsiung's airport. "It's been a long time since such a big storm made a landfall here."

No major casualties were reported, however, Chou said, adding, "Fortunately people were well prepared this time."

Typhoons often hit the east coast facing the Pacific, but Krathon is unusual since it directly hit the west coast, leading Taiwan's media to label it a "weird" storm, and also because it hovered off the coast before reaching land.

Shortly after dawn, residents of the city of about 2.7 million began receiving text messages warning them to seek shelter from gusts of more than 160 kph (100 mph), while its port was lashed by record gusts exceeding 220 kph (137 mph).

Speaking before the typhoon hit, Mayor Chen Chi-mai, urged people to stay indoors. "If you don't have to, please avoid going out," he told reporters.

More than 100,000 homes lost electricity, half of them in Kaohsiung, state-run utility Taipower said.

Taipei university student Liao Shian-rong, 24, came to Kaohsiung with some classmates to chase the storm, bringing equipment like barometers to study what he called a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity.

"We are being hit by the eyewall now and will enter the eye soon," he said, filming the storm from a hotel lobby.

The fire department reported two deaths as the typhoon brought torrential rains across Taiwan, both on the mountainous and sparsely populated east coast, one in a fall while trimming a tree and the other when a vehicle was hit by a rock.

Some eastern regions received more than 1.6 m (5.2 ft) of rain, washing cascades of rocks and mud on to roads.

The Southern Taiwan Science Park, site of one of the main factories of chipmaker TSMC 2330.TW, said operations were normal.

The typhoon is forecast to slowly work its way up Taiwan's flat western plain and weaken further by Friday, becoming a tropical depression over the central region.

All domestic flights were cancelled for a second day, as well as 242 international ones. The north-south high-speed rail line suspended services between central and southern regions until at least early evening.

Taiwan's financial markets also closed for a second day. But in Taipei, many shops and malls stayed open, despite squally rain showers.

The Kaohsiung government has been particularly cautious in its preparations since the last such storm in 1977, Typhoon Thelma, killed 37 people and devastated the city.

In a separate incident, officials in the southernmost county of Pingtung said nine people had died in a hospital electrical fire, with the health ministry working during the typhoon to move patients to other facilities.