Business and schools have shut across Taiwan and hundreds of flights were cancelled as millions of people brace for the arrival of Super Typhoon Kong-rey, one of the most powerful storms to threaten the island in decades.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence has put 36,000 troops on standby to help with rescue efforts, while 1,300 people have been evacuated from high-risk areas in advance of the typhoon, which is forecast to make landfall on the island’s sparsely-populated east coast at around 2:00pm (06:00 GMT) on Thursday.

With a storm radius of 320km (198 miles), Taiwan’s weather administration said Kong-rey would be the biggest typhoon by size to hit the island since 1996.

“The size of the storm is very large, and the winds are high,” weather administration forecaster Gene Huang said.

Up to 1.2 metres (3.9 feet) of rainfall is expected in eastern Taiwan with damaging wind speeds along coastal areas, according to the administration.

Warnings have been issued for destructive winds of more than 160 kilometres per hour (99 miles per hour) in the eastern county of Taitung, whose outlying Lanyu island recorded gusts above 260km/h (162mph) before some of the wind barometers there went offline.

Police check on roofing destroyed by the winds of Typhoon Kong-rey in Hualien County, eastern Taiwan, on Thursday [Hualien County Fire Department via AP Photo]

The storm is currently more powerful than Typhoon Gaemi, which was the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in eight years when it made landfall in July.

“Its impact on the entire Taiwan will be quite severe,” Chu Mei-lin, of the country’s Central Weather Administration, told a briefing.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Transport said 298 international flights have been cancelled, along with all domestic flights and 139 ferry services to and from outlying islands.

Residents in the capital Taipei said heavy rain was battering the city ahead of the typhoon’s landfall, while the city government said overground parts of the subway system had stopped operations as the wind was too strong.

At least 27 people have been injured in the wild weather so far, with trees being knocked down and four mudslides recorded, the National Fire Agency said Thursday, without providing details.

Kong-rey is forecast to graze China along the coast of Fujian province on Friday morning.

People in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, prepare for the arrival of strong winds and rain as Typhoon Kong-rey was predicted to make landfall on Friday [Alastair Mccready/Al Jazeera]