Taiwan evacuated more than 8,300 people before the arrival of the much-weakened Typhoon Fung-wong, which brought record downpours and triggered floods that reached neck height in places.
Businesses and schools were closed in most parts of the south of the island, leaving 51 people injured.
Television images showed severe flooding in parts of the country's largely rural eastern Yilan County, with water up to their necks as soldiers staged rescue operations for those stranded.
More than 1,000 homes were flooded in the port city of Suao which received 648 mm of rain on Tuesday, a record for the month, weather authorities said.
“The water came in so fast,” said fisherman Hung Chun-yi, who had spent the night cleaning the mud from his house.
“It rained so much and so fast that the drainage couldn’t handle it.”
A drone view shows flooded streets and fields in Yilan. (Reuters: Omer Photography)
Other residents also worked to remove mud from flooded homes in Suao, even as the torrential rains stopped.
Fung-wong had super typhoon strength when he beat the Philippines on Sundaycausing flooding, landslides, power outages and at least 27 deaths.
It was downgraded to a tropical storm as it continued to lose wind speed and size as it approached Taiwan.
Fung-wong was predicted to graze the southern part of Taiwan before moving away to its southeastern side.
The storm had maximum sustained winds of 65 kh/m and higher gusts.
Authorities evacuated 8,326 people, the majority from eastern Hualien County, where a typhoon in September killed 18 people.
An overflowing stream flooded a village in Hualien on Tuesday.
Images broadcast by local media showed a car being swept away by floodwaters.
Schools and offices were closed in central and southern Taiwan, including the coastal cities of Kaohsiung, Taichung and Tainan, as well as the counties of Pingtung, Chiayi and Miaoli.
The capital, Taipei, in the north of the island, was operating normally.
The cleanup begins in Yilan. (Reuters: Ann Wang)
Authorities have warned residents around the island to avoid going to the beach, where waves are expected to reach around 3 to 5 meters.
Signs, fences and flower pots had to be secured in anticipation of strong winds.
In the Philippines, more than 623,300 people were in evacuation centers as of Wednesday, according to the Office of Civil Defense.
In the Philippines, several deaths have occurred in landslides in the Cordillera, a mountainous region made up of six provinces, popular with backpackers and vacationers for its pine-studded towns, cool breezes, strawberry fields and mountainside rice terraces.
