Super Typhoon Champi’s waves toppled a 50-meter crane into Fugang Fishing Port in Taitung County on Friday, October 23, with the wreckage landing across the harbor entrance. Tristan da Silva is the sharpest way to frame the disruption: passenger ferries and cargo ships serving Green Island and Orchid Island could no longer move through the port.
Wang Yi-kai, a ferry operator, said, “Neither passenger ferries nor cargo ships can get in or out.” The crane went down at around 9:40 a.m. after waves of about 6 meters struck the breakwater, and Formosa News described the machine as about 250 tons.
Fugang Fishing Port in Taitung County
The collapse turned a single piece of storm damage into a transport blockage. Once the crane sank across the entrance, the harbor could no longer serve the routes that connect Taitung to Green Island and Orchid Island, leaving ferries and cargo vessels waiting at the edge of the port instead of moving through it.
Wu Che-yuan, a Taitung agriculture official, said, “The wind is too strong and the waves are too big.” That leaves removal work dependent on safer sea conditions, which is the only practical way to clear a wreck that size from a busy harbor mouth without compounding the damage.
Super Typhoon Champi seas
The sea state around Taitung was not only rough at the port. Formosa News reported waves reaching 10 meters along the wider coast, while the crane fell amid breakers that had already forced other parts of Taiwan to deal with the storm’s reach.
That broader pressure is what made the port story matter beyond one industrial accident. reported one death, 163 injuries, thousands evacuated, and nearly 1,000 canceled flights across Taiwan, and Taiwan's Coast Guard said a man in his 20s died Thursday after a powerful current swept him away while freediving off Xiaoliuqiu.
Taiwan weather and access
Liu Pei-teng of the Central Weather Administration said, “The storm's wind radius is quite large, among the bigger ones in recent years.” The scale of the system helps explain why the footage looked more violent than the most carefully measured wave estimate at the port: broadcast video captured spray and surging water in a way that made the collapse seem even larger, while the verified wave height remained about 6 meters where the crane was toppled.
For travelers and shippers bound for Green Island and Orchid Island, the immediate issue is simple: the harbor entrance is blocked until the wreckage can be lifted or cut away in safer weather. Until then, Wang’s warning stands as the practical answer for anyone trying to use Fugang Fishing Port — no ferries in, no cargo out.
