Just when Super Typhoon Champi’s cartoonishly huge waves seemed incapable of getting any more ridiculous, a new video from Taiwan emerged.
This time, the ocean didn’t just swallow a seawall. It knocked an enormous construction crane into the harbor.
Footage from Fugang Fishing Port in Taitung County shows gigantic breakers detonating against the breakwater on Friday, October 23. A towering curtain of whitewater engulfs the crane; after repeated hits, the machinery tips into the churning sea as witnesses cry out.
As SURFER previously reported, Champi’s earlier viral clips showed waves blasting coastal roadways, exploding around a lighthouse, and looming behind city buildings. Somehow, the latest footage raises the stakes.
According to Focus Taiwan, waves approximately 6 meters (20 feet) high toppled the crane around 9:40 a.m. Local broadcaster Formosa News reported waves reaching 10 meters (33 feet) along the wider Taitung coast and described the crane as 50 meters (164 feet) tall and weighing approximately 250 tons.
The explosion of spray appears to engulf much of that towering structure. But that’s not the same as a 150-foot breaking wave, and no official measurement of the spray’s maximum height has been officially verified.
Here’s the footage from Formosa News Taiwan, which claims: “As Typhoon Champi hurtles towards Taiwan, locals witnessed a huge 10 meter tall wave crash into the fishing harbor in Taitung. The waves were so powerful they knocked over a massive crane which stood 40 or 50 meters tall and eventually sank into the sea.”
The wreckage reportedly sank across the harbor entrance, obstructing ferries and cargo vessels serving Green Island and Orchid Island.
“Neither passenger ferries nor cargo ships can get in or out,” ferry operator Wang Yi-kai told Formosa News.
Related: Super Typhoon Champi’s Monster Waves Look Almost Too Big to Be Real (Video)
“The wind is too strong and the waves are too big,” Taitung agriculture official Wu Che-yuan said, explaining that removal must wait for safer conditions.
The destruction is only one part of Champi’s toll. Reuters reported one death, 163 injuries, thousands evacuated, and nearly 1,000 canceled flights.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard said a man in his 20s died Thursday after a powerful current swept him away while freediving off Xiaoliuqiu.
Despite weakening from its super-typhoon peak, Champi remains immense.
“The storm’s wind radius is quite large, among the bigger ones in recent years,” Central Weather Administration forecaster Liu Pei-teng told Reuters.
The agency continues warning of dangerous seas, powerful gusts, and torrential mountain rainfall.
And judging by the latest footage, those warnings aren’t remotely exaggerated.
Related: Watch: Insane Satellite Graphics Reveal Super Typhoon Champi’s Giant Eye
Original Post from this site