China, Taiwan brace for Typhoon Soulik amid soaring flood toll

PanARMENIAN.Net - China and Taiwan braced on Friday, July 12 for the impact of Typhoon Soulik as the toll of dead and missing from torrential rain across a broad swath of China climbed beyond 200, Reuters said.

Soulik is expected to hit northern Taiwan later in the day, before crossing the narrow Taiwan Strait and slamming into China's provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang on Saturday.

The Taipei city government has ordered companies and schools to send staff and pupils home early, although the financial markets will operate normally.

Taiwan's China Airlines and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd both warned of significant cancellations and disruption of flights to and from Taiwan on their websites.

The storm will also pass close to the far southern Japanese islands of Ishigaki and Miyako.

China has ordered fishing boats to return to port and suspended ferry links to Taiwan, official news agency Xinhua said.

The typhoon approaches as large parts of China are already being lashed by torrential rain.

At least 36 people have died in flooding in the southwestern province of Sichuan since the weekend, and 166 people are missing, the China News Service said.