It’s pretty bad:
At least 53 people have been killed in Taiwan and 10 are missing after Typhoon Xangsane swept across the island.
The winds and rains… were probably among the strongest in three decades and the casualties are the worst in recent years
Taiwanese Prime Minister Chang Chun-hsiung
Reports say 23 sailors are also feared dead after their freighter broke up off the northern coast.
Prime Minister Chang Chun-hsiung said the winds and rains were probably the strongest for 30 years.
The storms are also thought to have been a possible factor in the crash of a Singapore airline on Tuesday that killed at least 81 people.
At its strongest, Typhoon Xangsane blew winds of up more than 110km/h across a radius of 250km.
The heavy rains brought by the typhoon set off rock and mudslides in mountainous regions, burying dozens of people, and caused widespread powercuts.
Officials put initial agricultural losses at around T$2bn ($62.5m).
The heaviest fatalities were in the northern county of Keelung, where 14 elderly people died after becoming trapped by rising flood waters at their nursing home.
“They were elderly and could not move very quickly,” an interior ministry official said.
Other fatalities in Keelung included 15 Taoists who drowned at their worship site in the basement of a building.
Around 50 people have also been injured.
Those still missing include a family of five whose house was washed away in a flood.