TAIPEI, Aug. 21 -- Heavy rains from typhoon Fred inundated Taiwan Sunday, leaving hundreds of households in the island's northeast flooded. No deaths were reported from the storm, which took a sharp turn to the north and headed toward Japan at 8 miles per hour, leaving much of Taiwan unaffected by its strongest wind gusts up to 123 miles an hour, weather officials said.
The only casualty was a 17-year-old boy who was reported missing after going to a pier in Taiwan's southeast Taitung County, police said. Around 100,000 households were without electricity during the worst of the storm early Sunday, according to local reports. Domestic air traffic was disrupted for most of the day, while international air traffic and most rail and highway traffic was minimally affected by the typhoon, which measured 93 miles across. Water authorities in the north released water from resevoirs to prevent overflowing during the rains. Rains during and after the previous three typhoons left 20 people dead and flood damage in excess of $346 million, mostly in Taiwan's south and central areas, police said. Some 130 illegal mainland Chinese deckhands working on Taiwanese fishing boats were allowed to take temporary shelter on the island. Taiwanese fishing boats hire cheap labor from China, keeping them on floating hotels because mainland Chinese are not allowed to enter Taiwan.
