Taiwan is bracing itself for receiving the full impact of a monster category-5 cyclone expected to hit its eastern shores late Thursday night.

Supertyphoon Nepartak is expected to wreak chaos in the western Pacific basin, which has been eerily quiet with a record drought of no tropical cyclones in the last 200 days. The hiatus has allowed waters to conserve tremendous heat promoting ripe conditions for storm formation. Nepartak recorded maximum gusts of 175 m.p.h. as of Wednesday morning ET.

Taiwanese officials are preparing for the worst and mobilizing thousands of troops although the eastern coast, according to Taiwanese newspaper the China Post. Some flights to the island have already been canceled, the Taipei Times reports.

Anthony Sagliani, a tropical meteorologist at Earth Networks in Maryland, tells TIME that Nepartak was an almost textbook supertyphoon. “We as meteorologists have called Nepartak ‘perfect’ because, really, it is from a visual standpoint,” he said.

The typhoon is expected to lose some steam and become a category 4 by Friday before it sets it sights on eastern China, but it nonetheless expected to cause damage on the mainland, where its central and eastern provinces have already been hit by severe weather recently, with flooding exacting a heavy death toll.

Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Now Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Contact us at letters@time.com.