Typhoon Kong-Rey was the largest storm to hit Taiwan since 1996, the first Typhoon to make landfall in late October, and the third Typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in 2024. Its landfall marked the first time in 16 years that three Typhoons have made landfall in Taiwan during one Typhoon season. So far it has caused at least two deaths in Taiwan, injured hundreds, dumped over a meter of rain in the mountains of Hualien, and caused work and school to close throughout all of Taiwan. In this blog, I will detail some of the major events and overall situation in Taiwan during the Typhoon, as well as my own experience during this typhoon and past typhoons in Taiwan.
Basic Summary of the Typhoon 台風康芮大概的狀況
Typhoon Kong-Rey was the largest storm to hit Taiwan since 1996, the first Typhoon to make landfall in late October, and the third Typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in 2024. However, the typhoon weakened from a strong typhoon to a moderate typhoon, and eventually to a mild typhoon.
Typhoon Kong-Rey was the 21st storm of the 2024 Pacific typhoon season and began forming as a tropical depression on October 25th, strengthened to a Category-4 Super Typhoon, and finally made landfall in Chenggong Township of Taitung, Taiwan on October 31st, 2024. Its highest winds reached 240 km/h. When it made landfall in Chenggong Township of Taitung County, Taiwan, it was a category 3 Typhoon (winds between 111–129 mph, 178–208 km/h). As of the time of writing, the typhoon has caused over 2 fatalities in Taiwan and 200 injuries. Over 200,000 households lost electricity. All domestic flights and hundreds of international flights in Taiwan were canceled for a time. Most mountain villages in Taiwan were evacuated. Flooding occurred in Taitung, Hualien, and Yilan. As of the time of writing, Hualien received the most rain, with over 1200mm of rain (4 feet) in one day.
The Typhoon was seen in forecast models over a week in advance, and as you can see the models were accurate.
Original track for Typhoon Kongrey 2024 on October 24th.
The projected track changed again on the 27th.
The track then changed again the next day, getting closer to Taiwan.
The Typhoon came fast and hard and strengthened offshore for a while into a super Typhoon.
However, as it neared Taiwan it lost energy, eventually striking Taiwan as a category 3.
The Typhoon finally made landfall on Thursday, October 31st at about noon. It caused damage, destruction, and flooding on the east coast of Taiwan, and rain and wind elsewhere.
Work and school were canceled for one day everywhere in Taiwan, and in mountainous districts, two days of work and school were canceled.
See above for the full track of the typhoon.
Overall the typhoon hit the southeast coast and cut across central Taiwan before looping back toward Japan.
As of the time of writing, Hualien received the most rain, with over 1200mm of rain (4 feet) in one day.
The main reason for the massive rainfall is the Typhoon rammed into the Central Mountain Range.
There were strong wind gusts all around Taiwan. Taipei City in Tianmu just saw wind gusts of over 100 km/h. These were the strongest winds that I have ever seen in Taipei. Due to high winds, there was lots of destruction and devastation to trees, metal roofs, and cars all around Taiwan.
Luckily relatively few people were injured.
My Experience in Taipei 我在台北的經驗
Ever since Super Typhoon Nepartak in 2016, which was the last major Typhoon to hit Taiwan, I have been fascinated with the epic destruction that these storms can bring. At the time I was living in Niaosong District of Kaohsiung. There was flooding, and we lost electricity for three days (and therefore water, because water could not be pumped to our building). Many streets were inundated with water, Chengqing Road was flooded, and nearly every tree in Chengqing Lake Park was stripped bare. Later I also visited Kenting and Xiaoliuqiu which had also received damage from Nepartak and Super Typhoon Meranti also. For photos of the damage at that time, check out our blogs to Chengqing Lake Park here, Kenting here, and Xiaoliuqiu here. I have always been awed and amazed by the immense destructive power that these storms create.
Other notable Typhoons since Nepartak include Nesat, Haikui, but because these did not become super Typhoons and did not cause major island-wide damage, they will not be covered in this blog. Another two other recent Typhoons this year (2024) were Gaemi, which hit Taipei, and Krathon which hit Kaohsiung. You can read about Typhoon Gaemi in our blog here or Typhoon Krathon in our blog here.
Originally I had no plans for the week, and it was just going to be an ordinary, boring work week. Little did I know that I would get a Typhoon day off. I spent October 31st mostly at home watching TV. However there were very strong winds and rain, and the power did shut off in Nangang District of Taipei a few times before quickly coming back on.
Halloween was very scary this year! But thanks to Typhoon Kangrey for giving us the day off!
However, it got more and more windy as the night went on. All the pots on my balcony started lifting up in the air, and a part of the roof on my neighbor’s balcony flew off. I then knew this was the worst wind Taipei had seen in a long time.
I could also see from my window other damage such as this sign falling on a car. That is just what I could see. The damage around me was much worse.
Here are some posts that I made this morning from what I saw:
Some damage from my neighborhood in Taipei this morning. I have a feeling it’s going to be hard for some people to get to work and school today. pic.twitter.com/4zGHvP4akf
— Foreigners in Taiwan 🇹🇼 外國人在台灣 (@foreignersinTW) October 31, 2024
Three lanes of Academia Sinica Road in Nangang northbound are blocked off due to fallen trees. People have to cross the street to take the bus. Worst traffic jam I’ve ever seen! pic.twitter.com/ptN2lIk4IT
— Foreigners in Taiwan 🇹🇼 外國人在台灣 (@foreignersinTW) November 1, 2024
More damage and destruction from Nangang, Taipei. This is the worst Typhoon in my eight years living in Taipei. pic.twitter.com/JlNOOjtL1t
— Foreigners in Taiwan 🇹🇼 外國人在台灣 (@foreignersinTW) November 1, 2024
I saw tons of scooters that had been blown over on the streets of Taipei this morning. pic.twitter.com/kldSK5zTFO
— Foreigners in Taiwan 🇹🇼 外國人在台灣 (@foreignersinTW) November 1, 2024
Lots of trees were blown down in Taipei today, but one important fake tree that was blown down was the animatronic talking story tree at Nangang City Link. It was blown out from its covered area into the sidewalk. https://t.co/PA9jgeyN3k pic.twitter.com/FQBUDH4lMe
— Foreigners in Taiwan 🇹🇼 外國人在台灣 (@foreignersinTW) November 1, 2024
Free parking today?
Getting to work and school in Taipei was a nightmare on Nov 1, 2024. Thanks to lots of fallen trees and branches, buses and cars were backed up for miles.
The air in Taipei smells like mowed grass. Shredded leaves covered nearly every street in Taipei this morning. #TyphoonKongRey #typhoon #康芮 pic.twitter.com/Ro46c23A3m
— Foreigners in Taiwan 🇹🇼 外國人在台灣 (@foreignersinTW) November 1, 2024
Stories others around Taiwan 其他人的故事
I asked some of my followers how they were doing and what their stories were. Here are their responses:
- @Notquiteness doing fine, but yesterday evening’s apartment felt like a long drawn-out mini earthquake
- @tir_naog Set up a games emulator for my son. Now we have 7k classic vintage pre-Windows games to explore.
- @deanmlittle The best gû-bah-thng place in Tainan was closed. I will never recover from this.
- Luke Smith In Taichung, and it was only a little bit windy
- Mowafaq Ababneh We have power outage since yesterday around 14:00 and it was restored a few minutes ago. Xizhi New Taipei City
- SC Felicia Malaysian holidaying in Chaiyi. First time I experienced a Typhoon. Luckily, it’s relatively calm here. ( pardon me if it’s not !) Supposed to go to Alishan but had that cancelled.
- Misti Song not destruction, but weather disruption story: I had made this cute Halloween display so I could sit in front of my building & pass out candy to anyone passing by, but Halloween got canceled & now I have a bunch of bags of candy but we were safe
- Susan Stewart I think it should be illegal for earthquakes to occur during a typhoon.
- Chad Ell I caught a cold and a sore throat. Worst typhoon ever!
- Dawn Chen I went to Carrefour yesterday morning to buy some supplies since we couldn’t buy anything last Wednesday due to the panic buying of most people. While I was inside the grocery, I heard an old man shouting that the umbrellas in the rack were swayed by the strong wind, I checked my umbrella and it was gone. Good thing I was wearing my raincoat too.
- Tom Parker I washed the outside of my apartment windows while the rain could rinse them and nobody below would complain.
- Jino Felicilda drinking coffee..4 times
- Alina Pietilainen Taoyuan. Spent the afternoon in our building that was swaying in the wind… Like a never-ending earthquake kind of swaying. Also saw the banana trees across the road get derooted.
- Federico Agustin Altolaguirre – 艾飛 Neighbor’s tree fell down
Impact Around Taiwan 台灣其他地區的影響
Below are some videos and photos compiled around Taiwan to give you an idea of the Typhoon’s impact.
Shin Kong Mitsukoshi sign blown down in Xinyi District, near the Taipei 101, during Typhoon #Kongrey in Taiwan #颱風 #康芮
A giant croissant seen on the sidewalk during Typhoon #Kongrey in Taiwan #颱風 #康芮.
Collapsed metal roof structure blown down in Songshan District, Taipei during Typhoon #Kongrey in Taiwan #颱風 #康芮
Close call. Luckily no one was in the car. #Typhoon #Kongrey in Taiwan #颱風 #康芮
Thank you to all the work crews and EPA employees who worked tirelessly to get our streets and roads clear in the wake of #Typhoon #Kongrey in Taiwan!
特別感謝所有辛苦工路人員及環保局人員，在#颱風 #康芮 過後清理我們的街道！
There are many other photos and videos of the destruction online if you search for Typhoon Kongrey or 康芮.
Safety Precautions During a Typhoon 颱風天安全措施
- Secure loose outside objects
- If you live on the first floor of a flood-prone area, move as many valuables and important objects to higher floors as possible.
- Don’t ever rent an illegal rooftop structure. As seen in the videos above, the roof can get blown right off during a Typhoon. Get inside a concrete house.
- Park your car/scooter on high ground
- Don’t park your car or scooter near trees
- Avoid going outside for your safety
- Stay out of the mountains
- Stay away from the ocean
- Have enough dry food and water ready for three days (72 hours) in case water and electricity are cut off.
If you follow the above rules, most Typhoons in Taiwan will not be dangerous. Also, most buildings in Taiwan are built with reinforced concrete that can withstand even the strongest winds, so stay indoors and you will be fine.
Conclusion 結論
Nature is incredible. Ultimately nature is in control, but we can do our best to reduce risk and improve safety by following the precautions above.
