Typhoon Soudelor Pounds Taiwan With Strong Winds, Torrential Rain

Update as of 06:24 a.m. EDT: The death toll from Typhoon Soudelor in Taiwan rose to six on Saturday, with four people missing and 101 injured from the storm, Reuters reported.

In addition, power outages affected up to 3.62 million households. Television footage showed trees uprooted and power poles toppled over, a moped being swept into the air by wind and shipping containers piled on top of each other at a port.

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At least four people are dead and one is missing, as Typhoon Soudelor pounded Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rainfall after making landfall early Saturday. The storm also prompted evacuations in mainland China, where it is expected to hit next.

Forecasters had predicted the storm would have maximum sustained winds at landfall of about 125 mph -- the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane -- and parts of the country have already seen 12 inches of rain as the storm approached, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau.

Taiwanese electric utility Taipower reported that 2,665,000 customers had lost power at some point during the typhoon as of 9:46 a.m. local time Saturday (9:46 p.m. Friday EDT); more than 601,000 had been restored, but more than 2,060,000 customers were without power at that time, according to the Weather Channel.

"This is one of the worst typhoons I have ever seen," said a sewage station engineer surnamed Jiang, who was inspecting pumping stations early on Saturday told Reuters.

"My car was shaking when I was driving. There are too many trees down, and I even saw six downed power poles."

As the storm approached Taiwan earlier this week, hundreds of people were evacuated from high-risk areas, authorities issued flood and mudslide alerts and schools and government offices were closed for all or part of Friday in some areas, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported.

Despite the preparations, at least four lives have been lost during the storm. Flying debris killed at least two people, and an 8-year old girl and her mother were swept out to sea on Thursday. The girl's twin sister is also reportedly missing.

The storm, which was the strongest on earth earlier this week, has also prompted evacuations in China, with 5,000 people in Fujian province moved to safer locations, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Soudelor has already wreaked havoc in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, passing through earlier this week and disrupting water and electricity services. On Wednesday, The White House declared Saipan a disaster zone, and the U.S. Navy announced that it will send the USS Ashland to provide relief to the island, CNN reported.