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Typhoon kills one, forces evacuations

A tree lies on top of a car in the Chungli Industrial Park in Taoyuan after being uprooted by Typhoon Wipha yesterday. PHOTO: HSIEH WU-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Typhoon Wipha pummeled northern Taiwan yesterday, causing one death, leaving up to 8,000 households without electricity and forcing the evacuation of residents in two Hsinchu County townships.

A Thai man who had been part of the Bali-Sindian Expressway construction team was found dead yesterday morning after he was hit by falling scaffolding.

Another worker who was with him at the time was unscathed.

It is unknown what the men had been doing at the site, as yesterday had been declared a typhoon holiday.

Taiwan Power Co estimated that uprooted electricity poles had left as many as 8,000 households without power, including in Taipei's Beitou District (北投), Shuangsi Township (雙溪) in Taipei County and some townships in Miaoli County.

The power supply to all these areas was restored by yesterday afternoon.

The typhoon disrupted air transportation, causing cancelations and postponements of both international and domestic flights. Some airlines chose to allow international flights to depart one or two hours early before the weather took a turn for the worse.

Two people brave the wind and rain brought by Typhoon Wipha to look at the waves yesterday in Wanli Township, Taipei County. PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES

Mobile phone services were disrupted in some areas as base stations were damaged by the typhoon.

Heavy rain caused 29 rivers in Hsinchu County to declare "red alerts" for mudflows, forcing residents of the county's Wufeng (五峰) and Jianshih (尖石) townships to be evacuated.

Foehn wind was reported in Taitung County at 12:10pm yesterday, with temperatures reaching as high as 35.2oC. Foehn wind occurs when wind is forced over a mountain range, causing strong, gusty, warm and dry winds on the leeward side of the mountains.

About 60 tourists and hostel staff were trapped at Shei Pa Leisure Farm in Wufeng Township after its road access was cut off by mudflows.

The Taipei City Government pumped water out of low-lying areas in Shezi Island (社子島) and Beitou to prevent flooding. Dozens of trees were uprooted by strong wind, crushing parked cars.

Power supplies to 1,410 households in Taipei's Beitou and Nangang (南港) districts were cut off yesterday morning after a tree fell on utility poles.

With the exception of rail services to Alishan, both the Taiwan Railway Administration and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp continued operations as usual.

More than 4,000 fishermen from China meanwhile took refuge on boats and shelters in Keelung Port.

The Central Weather Bureau predicted that the nation would be out of the typhoon's grip by early this morning.

The bureau said it might also lift its land warning for Wipha by this morning.

At 9:15pm yesterday, Wipha's center was located 140km east of the island of Matsu. It was moving north-northwest at up to 27kph.

The radius of the typhoon reached 200km, with a maximum wind speed near its center of 155kph and gusts of up to 191kph.

Lin Hsiu-wen (林秀雯), deputy director of the bureau's weather forecast department, said the typhoon's movement suggested that it would keep heading north toward China's Zhejiang Province.

Information collected from the bureau's radar system showed that it had picked up speed, although winds appeared to have weakened, Lin said.

Mountainous areas in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli counties accumulated more than 500mm of rain, while rain on Yangmingshan topped 350mm. The typhoon also brought as much as 300mm of rain to the center of the country.

Although the bureau forecast on Monday that the typhoon's maximum wind speed could reach level 15 on the Beaufort scale, the wind was not as strong as expected.

Lin said the reason for this was that the most forceful part of the typhoon's circumfluence had not hit land.

Chung Hung-yuan (鍾弘遠), deputy director of Taipei City's economic development department, said a dredge project along Neihu's (內湖) Huanshan Road had increased the area's ability to absorb rainfall to as much as 600mm a day.

By yesterday, Typhoon Wipha had brought 200mm to 300mm of rain to the area.

The city government urged drivers to move their cars from temporary parking spaces along red lines, yellow lines and on bridges before 7am today, or the cars would be towed and their owners fined.

additional reporting by mo yan-chih
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