Typhoon Jangmi, which began battering Taiwan with strong winds and torrential rain on Sunday, had by noon yesterday killed two, injured 61 and left two missing, the Emergency Operations Center said.
Of the two confirmed dead, one was an 82-year-old man who drowned after he was blown by strong winds into an inundated rice paddy in Wuchi Township (梧棲), Taichung County, at about 1:50pm on Sunday.
The other victim was an 18-year-old woman who was hit by a falling TV cable as she was motorbiking along a road in Chingshui Township (清水), Taichung County, at about 12:45am yesterday, the center said.
PHOTO: CNA
A man in Changhua County was still missing yesterday morning after he went to a beach amid strong winds to gather stones.
Of the 61 injured, 36 were passengers on a double-decker tour bus overturned by a gust of wind on a highway connecting Ilan County and Taipei at about 4pm on Sunday.
Most of the other 25 people injured in the typhoon — 15 in Taipei County and seven in Taichung City — sustained injuries after falling off motorbikes or being hit by tree branches or commercial signboards.
PHOTO: YEH YUNG-CHAI, TAIPEI TIMES
DAMAGE
Roads were blocked and homes destroyed by landslides in mountainous areas. As of 6pm yesterday, there were 93 reports of damage on freeways, provincial highways and other roads nationwide.
By 6pm yesterday, the Directorate General of Highways had fixed 47.
As the wind and rain dispersed yesterday, the public transportation system gradually resumed operations.
Both the Taiwan Railway Administration and the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp had resumed services by yesterday afternoon.
Local governments began sending out personnel last night to clear fallen trees, damaged road signs and other debris.
Hsieh Ching-hsu (謝景旭), an official at Taipei City’s disaster response center, said households in 56 areas of the city were without power as a result of damage by the typhoon, while 30 areas had experienced flooding, 30 sections of road were temporarily closed by fallen rocks, more than 330 trees had been knocked over, and 30 sections of road and 44 road signs were damaged.
On Roosevelt Road, the roof of a house was blown off by the wind, but no injuries were reported, Hsieh said.
Kaohsiung City’s Environmental Protection Bureau said it dispatched 1,155 officials to clean up drains and remove fallen trees and store signs.
As of 8am yesterday, the bureau said it had removed 180 tonnes of fallen trees. Statistics from the city’s typhoon disaster emergency center showed that 6,019 households in Nanzih (楠梓), Zuoying (左營) and Kushan (鼓山) districts were without power, 29 trees had been felled and 24 store signs were completely or partially torn off.
The center of Jangmi left the country at 4:20am yesterday, but the Central Weather Bureau continued to warn residents in the central and southern parts of the country of risks of torrential rain.
The bureau lifted its land alert at 5:30pm yesterday and downgraded Jangmi from a typhoon to a tropical storm. The bureau had yet to lift the sea alert.
Sea vessels operating off the northern and northeastern coasts, as well as those operating near the northern part of the Taiwan Strait, were told to exercise extreme caution.
Taipingshan (太平山) in Ilan County received the most rain yesterday, with 1,129mm by 5:30pm. It was followed by Shipanlong (石磐龍) in Chiayi County and Beitou (北投), Taipei City, with 964mm and 836mm respectively.
Meanwhile, the bureau reported that Tropical Storm Mekkhala had formed yesterday. At press time, its center was 360km south of Haikou, Hainan Province, and was moving northwest at 22kph. The bureau said Mekkhala would likely move toward Vietnam.
The bureau also reported that a low-air pressure system was lurking near Guam, moving westward at a speed of 10kph.
It had yet to determine whether the system would develop into a typhoon.
Although the damage from Typhoon Jangmi was not as extensive as anticipated, losses in the agricultural sector were estimated at NT$318 million (US$9.87 million), the Council of Agriculture said yesterday.
As a result, the price of fruit and vegetables rose yesterday, averaging NT$38.7 per kilogram nationwide and NT$41.39 per kilogram in Taipei City, the highest this year.
By sector, agricultural losses were NT$286 million in crops, NT$17.7 million in land and farming equipment, and NT$2.47 million in livestock, the council said.
Losses in fisheries and forestry were not substantial, it said.
Farmers in Miaoli County qualified for subsidies according to the Agricultural Natural Disaster Relief Regulations (農業天然災害救助辦法), the council said, adding that farmers were encouraged to apply for compensation as soon as possible.
Rice paddies were hit quite hard, while fruits and vegetables such as bananas, persimmons and corn also suffered, the council said.
Compared with root vegetables like carrots and radishes, leaf vegetables were more affected by the typhoon, leading to higher prices.
In Taipei, the price of water spinach rose 60 percent to more than NT$70 per kilogram, while that of bok choy was NT$80 per kilogram, the council said.
The price of root vegetables remained stable, it said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
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