Taiwan closes schools and offices as typhoon Kong-rey reaches east coast

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Classes and offices have been closed in Taiwan and flights and trains suspended as a powerful typhoon made landfall on the island’s east coast , bringing high winds and floods. Typhoon Kong-rey plowed into Taitung County at 184 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 227 kilometers per hour. Parts of the eastern counties of Yilan and Hualien were flooded, but no deaths or major property damage have been reported thus far in Taiwan. Taiwan authorities reported 27 injuries from the storm and said they were seeking to contact a pair of Czech tourists who had been hiking in a national park. Earlier Thursday, typhoon’s eye blew about 110 kilometers east of the northernmost Philippine province of Batanes, where many villagers had moved to shelters a day earlier.