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Typhoon Morakot heads away after lashing the south

Trees lie in the street in Taitung City early yesterday morning after they were felled by sudden winds whipped up by Typhoon Morakot. PHOTO: YANG CHIEN-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES

Typhoon Morakot, the ninth typhoon of the year, and the first to make landfall, veered out to sea last night after dumping heavy rain and causing mudslides in southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau reported.

No casualties or property damage were reported as of press time.

Fred Tsai (蔡甫甸), a division chief at the bureau's Weather Forecast Center, said that southern residents, especially those living in mountainous areas, should continue to remain vigilant and brace themselves for strong winds, torrential rains, flash floods and mudslides today.

"Due to the peripheral circumfluence of the storm, southern Taiwan will continue to see heavy rains and strong winds tomorrow, while northern Taiwan will have strong winds gusting up to 17 meters per second [61kph]," Tsai said yesterday.

The bureau issued the sea warning at 5:30 pm on Saturday and land warning at 11:30pm Saturday night for southern Taiwan, including Taitung, Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Tainan.

The land warning was expanded to cover the offshore islands of Orchid Island, Green Island, the Penghu archipelago and Kinmen yesterday as the typhoon continued its northwesterly course at a speed of 19kph and with a radius of 100km.

Earlier in the day, Taitung County authorities closed the airport on Green Island as the weather bureau extended the land alert to the island.

More than 1,000 vacationers on Orchid and Green Islands were forced to end their trips early and return to the main island of Taiwan before air travel and ferry services to the offshore islands were shut down.

Ferry services between Kaohsiung harbor and Penghu were also suspended yesterday and may remain closed today, depending on the weather.

Anticipating the impact of the storm on agricultural production, the Council of Agriculture yesterday opened its disaster response center and activated its emergency response mechanism.

According to council Chairman Lee Chin-lung (李金龍), the inventory of 4,500 tonnes of refrigerated fruit and vegetables should be sufficient to stabilize food supplies in the aftermath of the typhoon.

In addition to the central government, local governments including those off Pingtung County, Taitung County and Kaohsiung County, yesterday activated their own disaster response centers.

The Central Weather Bureau is also closely watching Tropical Storm Etau which is developing in the west Pacific. Meteorologists said yesterday that it will not become clear whether Etau posed a threat to Taiwan for three to five days since it was still 2,200km away.
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