Taiwan issues warning as powerful typhoon approaches

Taiwan's weather agency issued a warning on Wednesday over the possible landfall of the powerful Typhoon Kong-rey the next day, according to local media.

The northwestern Pacific island nation's Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued the warning for eastern Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula in the southern Pingtung County, news website Focus Taiwan reported, adding that the warning could be expanded to cover all of Taiwan.

CWA forecaster Chu Mei-lin said the agency expects that the storm could make landfall south of Hualien County sometime between Thursday noon and Thursday evening.

"As the storm approaches, northern and northeastern Taiwan will begin to see increasingly heavy rain, beginning on Wednesday afternoon," said Chu.

Kong-rey was some 480 kilometers (298.2 miles) southeast of Cape Eluanbi, Taiwan's southernmost point, at the time of the report, moving northwest at 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) per hour.

Forecasts indicate that it could dump as much as 800-1,200 millimeters (31.5-47.2 inches) of rain in the mountainous Yilan and Hualien areas by Nov. 1.