Typhoon Nock-Ten Kills 4 in Taiwan

Taiwan (HDW) October 29, 2004 - Typhoon Nock-Ten hammered Taiwan with heavy rains and strong winds on October 25, 2004, killing at least four, according to reports across the media. Heavy rains drenched northeastern Taiwan, triggering extensive flooding. Though winds had dropped to about 100 miles per (170 kilometers per hour) when the storm blew ashore, at its height, Nock-Ten’s maximum sustained winds reached 127 miles per hour (204 kilometers per hour) with stronger gusts. The above image of the storm was acquired on October 24, by a NASA satellite a few hours after the storm began to weaken.

Nock-Ten, “bird” in Laotian, is the 6th typhoon to strike Taiwan and the 24th to develop in the western Pacific this year. After moving across northern Taiwan, the storm curved east over the East China Sea and weakened into an extra-tropical depression as it approached Japan’s southern islands on October 26. This storm is not expected to do the damage to Japan that Typhoon Tokage caused 2 weeks ago when it killed almost 100 people in Japan and became its worst typhoon in 25 years.