Typhoon land warning likely for all of Taiwan by Wednesday night: CWA

Taipei, Oct. 30 (CNA) The land warning for Typhoon Kong-rey could be expanded to cover all of Taiwan by Wednesday night, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as the storm continues on its path toward southeastern Taiwan.

The CWA issued a land warning at 5:30 a.m. for Taitung County in eastern Taiwan and the Hengchun Peninsula in southern Pingtung County, meaning that those areas are expected to be within the storm's outer rim within 18 hours.

As of 9:30 a.m., the warning had been expanded to Hualien County and all of Pingtung County.

At a press conference Wednesday morning, CWA forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) said the land warning would continue to be expanded as the storm approached, and could cover all of Taiwan as early as Wednesday night.

The CWA currently expects Kong-rey to make landfall south of Hualien County sometime between Thursday noon and Thursday evening, Chu said.

As the storm approaches, northern and northeastern Taiwan will begin to see increasingly heavy rain, beginning on Wednesday afternoon, the forecaster said.

In central and southern Taiwan, rain may only intensify after the storm has made landfall and begun to pass over the Central Mountain Range, Chu said.

The CWA has forecast that from Oct. 29 through Nov. 1, Kong-rey could dump as much as 800-1,200 millimeters of rain in the mountainous areas of Yilan and Hualien.

Among low-elevation areas, the highest rainfall totals are expected in Yilan, Hualien and Taitung in the east, which could receive 500-800 mm of rain, the agency said.

As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, Typhoon Kong-rey was 480 kilometers southeast of Cape Eluanbi, Taiwan's southernmost point, and was moving northwest at 15 kilometers per hour.

It is carrying maximum sustained winds near its center of up to 184 kph and maximum gusts of 227 kph, stronger than the respective speeds of 162 kph and 198 kph measured on Tuesday night.