is letting up. i m sure you re getting a much better sense of the flooding. we see these images as you speak now. we see these homes that are flooded, we see roads that have been washed out and even see people, like this image, driving through these floodwaters. what is the situation right now as the storm lets up a bit? well, the area i was in, in southeastern taiwan, has thankfully escaped the worst of the flooding. i wasn t actually able to reach the northern areas of taiwan just because the roads to access that area is so precarious and dangerous that it s simply just impossible to travel along. a lot of the roads carve into the sides of mountains, and it s just too hazardous with landslides and flash floods. but what i ve seen from my colleague, who actually is from taipei, his friends have been sending him photographs of the rivers at extraordinarily high levels, very unusual scenes that they re not accustomed to in
in mali, at least six people are dead after armed islamic militants stormed two hotels on friday morning. ukraine s foreign ministry says one of its nationals is being held hostage. united nations mission in mali says one of its foreign staffers was among the dead there. a former head of chile s notorious secret police has died. manuel contreras, who headed the feared spy agency that tortured and killed thousands of people during the military dictatorship of pinochet. contreras was serving a 500-year sentence for human rights abuses. he remained unrepentant until his final days. contreras was 86 years old. typhoon soudelor churning across the ocean at this hour, headed toward taiwan, tracking mainly toward mainland china. taiwan s central news agency says four people have been killed, four people are still missing. this strong storm is expected to weaken before it makes landfall
taipei. james, we know that you re a professional at this. still, we wish you the very best of safety as you continue to cover this very strong storm that is hitting taiwan right now. let s now turn to our meteorologist, derek van dam. derek, you heard what james is dealing with. yeah, i would say that he s not quite out of the woods just yet, george. he said that he was on the southwestern side of taiwan, and that s actually where what is called a return flow of this storm is going to be impacting the region. so, we and he should expect heavier rain to continue at least for the next four to even upwards of six hours before it s all cleared, all said and done, and that means landslides, m mudslides are still a concern there as well. the storm is now headed towards the fujian province in southeast china, george. and i want to talk about population density across that area, because according to local authorities, about 185,000 people have been moved to safer ground. but look at this
densely packed. of course, the storm has made its way over taiwan, and it has weakened considerably, but it is still a strong storm. it s moving across the taiwan straits as we speak, and it will bring heavy rain and strong winds to the southeastern portions of china. in fact, it s already doing that as we speak right now. 1 165-kilometer-per-hour sustained winds. this is the projected path it will move across the fujian province, eventually curving to the north and northeast over the next 24 to 48 hours. when it makes a second landfall over the next two to four hours, we expect winds about 130 kilometers per hour for that initial landfall, right near the eye wall. now, it s the rainfall that has been a major concern. look at these rain totals. we are measuring this in meters, folks. 1.2 meters in the mountainous regions of northern taiwan, and that left mudslides and landslides, dangerous stuff for the local residents across the area, not to mention the storm
a concern, it was the heavy rainfall as well. you can see it making a southeasterly trek over the next 24 to 48 hours, bringing upwards of 300 to 400 millimeters of additional rainfall to the southeast coastline. look at the rain totals in this area, 1,253 millimeters recorded since the storm started in central and northern sections of taiwan. you can see that that led to mudslides. we ve been showing this footage, but george, i want to take one last look at it because it s impressive stuff to see just a wall of mud rushing down the side of a mountain, which, by the way, can travel at upwards of 40 kilometers per hour. but as this tracks, again, toward china, weakens a bit. it s weakened, or it s in a weakening phase, but that doesn t mean that heavy rain and wind won t be a concern. it really won t be until it gets into the interior of china, where it starts to dissipate. derek van dam, thank you so much. thanks, george. and just so that you know,