Typhoon Haitang tore across Taiwan yesterday, bringing powerful winds and torrential rain, and shutting down schools, workplaces, airports and railroads across the country. Haitang was the strongest typhoon to hit the country in five years.
As of press time yesterday, one person -- a 65-year-old man hit by a falling rock in Taichung County -- was confirmed dead, according to the government's Central Disaster Prevention and Relief Center. Twenty-five injuries were reported, with many hurt after being hit by fallen trees or billboards, or cut by broken window panes.
Two women also drowned -- one at Taipei's Yucheng water pumping station, and the other in Taoyuan -- but the center's officials had not yet established whether the two deaths were related to the typhoon. In Ilan, a car smashed into the sea in heavy rain and police were searching for the driver.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Blackouts caused by the storm affected 1.36 million households and 12,000 households experienced water restrictions.
Premier Frank Hsieh (
"All local governments must remain on the alert. We have to prevent potential mudflows and landslides from causing damage to people," Hsieh said at a central disaster prevention meeting yesterday.
The center of Typhoon Haitang yesterday made landfall at Tungao Township (
At 6pm yesterday, Haitang was packing maximum winds of 162kph, down from a previous 184kph, and gusts of up to 198kph, weaker than the earlier 227kph, the Central Weather Bureau said.
If the typhoon stays on its present course, it will hit China's southeastern coast this afternoon.
Schools and workplaces were closed yesterday in all of the nation's cities and counties. All trains and domestic flights were cancelled. About 90 percent of international flights were also cancelled.
Forecasters said yesterday that ships sailing in the Taiwan Strait and residents of Kinmen and Matsu should remain on the alert because strong winds and heavy rains are moving across the Strait toward southern China. Local governments in Kinmen, Matsu and Yunlin County yesterday announced that schools and workplaces would remain closed today.
Hsieh yesterday morning inspected the Yuanshanzih flood diversion tunnel in Keelung. At 8am yesterday, the tunnel began to operate to divert water from the Keeling River to the northeastern coast of the island. Due to the operation, several communities in Sijhih City (
"However, we still have make the construction perfect by mending 11 small water gaps," Hsieh said.
Central Weather Bureau statistics showed that Ilan County was especially hard hit, with cumulative rainfall exceeding 1,000mm in many areas. As of press time, Taipingshan (
After analyzing up-to-date rainfall statistics, the Council of Agriculture yesterday issued mudflow and landslide warnings and listed 185 rivers across the country in "critical danger" of flooding.
In Taipei City, howling winds uprooted trees and street signs. Billboards lay toppled on the roads, and sandbags lined the doors of shops and homes. Household waste collection service was unavailable yesterday because all garbage trucks were being used to collect leaves and tree branches that had fallen on streets.
also see story:
Typhoon leaves destruction in its wake
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS