Taiwan evacuates 3,000 ahead of arrival of Typhoon Fung Wong

By AFP November 10, 2025 | 07:22 pm PT

People use umbrellas to shield from the rain and the wind as Typhoon Fung Wong approaches, in Keelung, Taiwan, on Nov. 10, 2025. Photo by AFP

Taiwan issued a land warning on Nov. 11 and evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Fung Wong which, while weakening, is expected to dump large amounts of rain on the island’s mountainous east coast.

Fung Wong is forecast to make landfall on Taiwan’s south-western coast around the major port city of Kaohsiung on Nov. 12, after powering through the Philippines as a much stronger system and killing six people.

It is then expected to cross the bottom part of Taiwan and enter the Pacific Ocean along the coast of the sparsely populated eastern counties of Taitung and Hualien.

Taiwanese authorities said that people should not head into the mountains or go to the coast or other potentially dangerous areas.

In Sept., 18 people died in Hualien in flooding unleashed by an earlier typhoon.

The government has already ordered evacuations in the town of Guangfu, the scene of those deadly floods, and said a total of 3,337 people in four counties and cites had been moved to safer areas.

Hualien closed schools and offices on Nov. 11, as did the neighboring county of Yilan.

The typhoon will not directly affect the northern city of Hsinchu, home to TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker.