At Hualien Harbor in eastern Taiwan, one enormous wave was enough to make a seven-story lighthouse nearly disappear.
The red lighthouse on the port’s eastern breakwater stands 22.8 meters—almost 75 feet—tall. Yet in a remarkable photograph shared as Super Typhoon Champi battered Taiwan, a towering explosion of whitewater rises around the structure until almost nothing is visible.
“It’s been several years since I last saw a red light tower completely covered by waves,” the photographer wrote. “Before the typhoon really hit, the wind in Hualien City and along the coast was already very strong.”
Local news footage captures the same extraordinary phenomenon: waves detonating against the harbor defenses and spray soaring above the lighthouse.
It looks like a 75-foot wave. But there’s an important distinction. The lighthouse’s height provides a scale for the spray and wave run-up, not a verified measurement of a breaking wave face. Local reports put seas near Hualien at almost seven meters, or roughly 23 feet.
Related: Super Typhoon Champi Wave Knocks 164-Foot Crane Into Ocean in Taiwan (Video)
Former Taiwan weather bureau director Cheng Ming-dean shared the photograph and warned, in comments translated from Chinese, of “the power of Champi’s long-period swells.”
See footage of the scene below.
And the danger went beyond dramatic photographs.
On October 21, four workers near Hualien Harbor’s lighthouse were swept into the ocean during construction work. Coast Guard rescuers pulled all four from the water; two sustained minor injuries.
As SURFER has previously reported, Champi reached super-typhoon intensity before bringing destructive surf across Taiwan. Elsewhere, six-meter waves toppled a towering crane into the water at Fugang Fishing Harbor, while powerful winds knocked out electricity and disrupted flights.
The Associated Press reported one death and 350 injuries across Taiwan as of late October 23, with the storm’s enormous circulation affecting much of the island despite no direct landfall.
The photograph is almost surreal.
But for officials trying to keep spectators off breakwaters, it’s also a stark reminder: even a lighthouse isn’t a safe place to be when the Pacific comes roaring in.
Related: Super Typhoon Champi’s Monster Waves Look Almost Too Big to Be Real (Video)
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