Update: China Girds for Typoon Doksuri as Death Toll Rises in Philippines

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China canceled dozens of flights and trains in preparation for Typhoon Doksuri, which has shuttered much of southern and eastern Taiwan after bringing torrential rain and strong winds to the Philippines.

At least 11 people have died in the Philippines, according to the country’s disaster management agency and local authorities, while there was one fatality in Taiwan. The massive storm is packing sustained winds up to 155 kilometers (96 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 191 kph, and was about 190 kilometers southwest of Taiwan’s southernmost point as of 3:15 p.m. local time.

The typhoon is expected to move through the southern part of Taiwan Strait tonight and gradually get closer to China’s coastline early morning tomorrow, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said in a live Facebook forecast. For now, the human toll is lower than that seen from many previous typhoons, and agricultural losses appear limited.

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After battering the northern Philippines, where it caused chest-deep floods and disrupted power, the storm brought strong winds and heavy rains to Taiwan, where roughly 55,000 households experienced power disruptions. Schools and offices in many key cities on the island, including Kaohsiung and Tainan, remain closed.

The storm caused numerous flight cancellations in the Philippines earlier this week, while Taiwan authorities said more than 300 domestic and international flights were scrapped.

China is now girding for the storm and has raised the highest alert of its four-tier color-coded system for severe weather. The typhoon is expected to make landfall in the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong Friday morning, according to China’s National Meteorological Center.

Fujian’s Xiamen city has announced closures to offices and schools from 3 p.m. and will gradually suspend public transport tonight, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Zhangzhou city, near Xiamen, is suspending work and classes for two days.

China Eastern Airlines Corp. said its inbound and outbound flights in several southeastern cities will be canceled from today through Saturday to ensure passenger safety. The airport of Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian, has canceled more than 50 flights Thursday, according to CCTV. Dozens of train services in the Yangtze River Delta in eastern China have also been suspended, according to China Railway’s Shanghai bureau.

Hong Kong, which is calling the storm a “severe typhoon”, will maintain its lowest alert until Friday morning. The local observatory says the chance of issuing a higher warning signal is relatively low.

Nearly 16,000 people have been evacuated in the northern Philippine province of Cagayan, where Doksuri made landfall as a super typhoon. Although more than 180,000 people in the country have been affected by the storm, the devastation appears much less than in October last year, when more than 100 people died from floods and landslides triggered by storm Nalgae, which also displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

There also appears to have been relatively limited damage to the country’s agriculture. The typhoon caused an estimated 53.1 million pesos ($973,080) of damage to crops, primarily for rice and corn, according to its agriculture department. Taiwan estimates its agricultural losses from the typhoon to be about NT$1.5 million ($48,000).

Taiwan also has extensive experience with typhoons, though it has been spared direct hits in recent years. The government and local companies took extensive steps ahead of the storm to minimize damage.

–With assistance from Danny Lee, Olivia Tam, Adrian Kennedy, Ditas Lopez, Ocean Hou and Dominic Lau.