Taiwanese stacked sand bags at doors and boarded up windows Sunday as Typhoon Fung Wong approached the island, whipping up waves along its coast and triggering a rock slide that injured a man.
Moving northwest toward the island, the tropical storm has gained strength over the past 24 hours and developed into a typhoon packing winds of 85 mph, the Central Weather Bureau said, the AP reported.
If it stays on its present course, it will hit central and eastern Taiwan early Monday, the bureau said.
Late Sunday afternoon, the storm was centered about 180 miles southeast of the coastal city of Hualien in eastern Taiwan, it said.
Rain and wind lashed Hualien on Sunday, triggering a rock slide in the scenic Taroko Gorge that injured a man, police said.
In Keelung in northern Taiwan, winds whipped up giant waves, and hundreds of fishing boats took shelter in port.
Fung Wong roared toward Taiwan just a week after tropical storm Kalmaegi killed 19 people and left six others missing on the island.
Authorities provided sandbags on Sunday to citizens in low-lying areas. Officials said dozens of villagers were evacuated from a mountainous region in southern Kaohsiung where several houses were buried by mudslides caused by Kalmaegi.
Typhoons frequently hit Taiwan between July and September, often causing casualties in mountainous regions prone to landslides and flash floods.