Typhoon Soudelor Trashes Taiwan, As Expected

A scene in Taiwan as Typhoon Soudelor approached on Friday.
Photo from Getty Images 

Taiwan took the brunt of Typhoon Soudelor, which made landfall there, Saturday morning their time.

Peak wind gusts on land reached as high as 145 mph. Taipei, home to more than 2.5 million people, had gusts to 86 mph downtown and 93 mph out at the airport.

The big part of this storm was the rain. If you think Taipei's 12 inches and counting is huge, another town in Taiwan has so far reported 51 inches of rain in the past couple of days from the typhoon.

For comparison's sake, most cities in the United States East Coast normally get about 40 or 45 inches of rain per year.

Taiwan is among the most prepared areas for typhoons in the world, but even they can't escape the effects and disruption, of course. At least three people have died so far, two million people have no electricity, and there is massive, massive flooding.

Here are some videos that have so far come from Taiwan and Typhoon Soudelor:

Watch a very scary looking flash flood/mudslide associated with Soudelor's torrential rains:



Waves crash into the coast ahead of the typhoon:



The typhoon's winds blow this ferris wheel like a pinwheel: