It only took 24 hours for Super Typhoon Meranti, which is threatening Taiwan and mainland China, to roar from the equivalent of a Category 1 storm to a top-scale Category 5. Meranti is forecast to make landfall along the southern tip of the island of Taiwan, home to more than 23 million people, on Wednesday morning local time. ortunately, most of the population lives on the northern and western side of the island. Even though Meranti, which likely will still be a super typhoon at landfall on the southern tip, the entire island will feel the storm's wrath.