President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), faced with the first major natural disaster since his May 20 inauguration, blamed the lack of preparedness for the storm on the Central Weather Bureau (CWB), which he said provided an inadequate warning.
In response, Daniel Wu (吳德榮), director of the CWB’s weather forecast center, told reporters that “a margin of error is inevitable” in weather forecasting.
The CWB yesterday urged residents in central and southern Taiwan to brace for further downpours although the storm was moving toward the Chinese province of Fujian.
If Kalmaegi had a silver lining after its torrential rains devastated central and southern Taiwan on Friday, it would be the abundant water it poured into local reservoirs to ensure a drought-free year.
The Water Resources Agency said that Tsengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫) in Tainan County — the largest reservoir in the country — collected 310 million tonnes of water within one day, increasing its level from 40 percent to 92.4 percent full.
The reservoir’s administration said it was prepared to open the dam’s floodgates yesterday if the reservoir continued to fill up.
Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫), also in Tainan County, opened it sluice gates on Friday when it reached its maximum storage capacity of 141.84 million cubic meters.
Beihe Reservoir (白河水庫), which is mainly used for irrigation of the Tainan area, was filled to capacity on Thursday night and its administration officials immediately opened the floodgates.
Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) in Taoyuan County also began to adjust its water level around noon on Friday. As of press time, the water level had reached the 241m mark — only 4m below the maximum level — representing 83.63 percent of the reservoir’s storage capacity.
RSS