Typhoon Morakot slammed into Taiwan overnight, pounding the nation with strong winds and downpours. Southern Taiwan in particular was drenched with more than 1,500mm of rainfall that submerged houses and streets.
The typhoon made landfall in Hualien County late on Friday night, unleashing powerful winds that swayed high-rise buildings, and uprooted trees and road signs in many places. With a radius of 250km and packing maximum winds of 119kph, the typhoon had weakened considerably by the time the eye hit the Hualien coastline at 11:50pm on Friday and was downgraded to a tropical storm yesterday afternoon as it moved north-northwestward away from Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.
Forecasters, however, warned the public to guard against torrential rain, which they said would continue nationwide for days to come.
PHOTO: CNA
The torrential rain, coinciding with the monthly high tide along the coastline of southern Taiwan, triggered flooding in a number of areas.
At 9pm yesterday, Pingtung County’s Wei Liao Mountain (尾寮山) topped the nation with 2,051mm of rainfall since Thursday, the CWB said. Other areas in the county such as Chiatung (佳冬) and Wen-feng (塭豐) saw floods that reached two stories deep.
TV footage showed torrential downpours had submerged houses and streets in the county, cutting off electricity and phone services.
PHOTO: CNA
“The flood started this morning and the water is more than two stories high in most places,” said a policeman from Chiatung Township, one of the worst-hit areas in Pingtung. It is home to 10,000 people
Five major bridges in the county have been closed to traffic and roads leading to mountainous regions have also been closed because of landslides.
There was also flooding in many districts of Kaohsiung City, with the areas adjacent to Sizihwan (西子灣), Love River (愛河) and Chienchen River (前鎮河) heavily affected. The water level rose knee-high in some streets in the Chienchen District (前鎮).
Dozens of homes were flooded in Taimali Township (太麻里) in Taitung. Residents of five villages in Taimali evacuated their homes and 40,000 households had no power.
Mudslides were reported in mountainous areas in the counties of Nantou, Pingdong and Taitung, forcing the closure of some bridges during the storm.
At its peak strength on Friday, the storm caused power outages for 896,833 households and electricity grid workers had to brave strong winds and heavy rain to fix the power system, Taiwan Power Company said. At noon yesterday, 163,075 households were still without power, the company said.
The storm also wreaked havoc on air and sea transportation, forcing airlines and shipping companies to cancel all outbound flights and marine services until yesterday noon. By yesterday afternoon, about 80 percent of domestic and international flights had resumed.
A 67-year-old woman died late on Friday when she drove her motorcycle into a ditch during heavy rain in southern Kaohsiung County, the National Fire Agency said in a statement on its Web site.
A 47-year-old man slammed his car into a train in torrential rain in Ilan County late on Friday and died on the spot. Four people were missing and feared dead, the National Fire Agency said, adding that two were fishermen whose boat capsized off the coast of Pingtung County.
Another man who was fishing onshore in Taitung County fell into the sea and has not been recovered, the agency said. A villager, also in Taitung, set off on a fishing expedition early on Friday as the storm approached, but no one has been able to contact him since, it said.
National Taiwan Normal University yesterday issued a press release saying that a group of five people, two of its students and three alumni, who were scheduled to descend Dabajian Mountain (大霸尖山) yesterday, remained missing.
Two policemen were trapped on a power line pole for more than three hours when they tried to rescue residents of Taitung’s Taiho Village (太和), who were reportedly stuck in their houses because of flooding, the Central Disaster Emergency Operation Center said.
Before the approach of Typhoon Morakot, at least four counties had begun rationing water. But as of yesterday morning, Shihmen Reservoir in Taoyuan County, which was almost half empty last week, had to open its floodgates as Morakot had filled it up in just one day.
The Council of Agriculture (COA) said that at 3pm yesterday, the nation had sustained NT$832 million (US$25.4 million) in losses in crops, animal stocks, fish, forestry and agricultural equipment.
The highest loss came from crops, with bananas particularly hard-hit, the COA said, as more than 11,145 hectares of farmland had been hit by the typhoon.
Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Hualien counties met guidelines for the Agricultural Natural Disaster Relief Regulations (農業天然災害救助辦法), the COA said, adding that farmers in the county were eligible for cash relief funds and low-interest mortgages.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) said yesterday that tax payers could claim deductions for property damaged by Typhoon Morakot once they had proper documentation.
Property owners are eligible to file their tax deduction applications with local tax offices within 30 days and must attach detailed reports of the damage and legal verification of ownership, the MOF said.
Once the applications have been approved by tax officials, who are required to conduct on-site inspections, property holders and business owners can list their damaged commodities or products for tax deductions when they file their income or business tax returns next year, it said.
A wide range of personal property such as private cars, scooters, houses and land damaged by Morakot are included on the list of tax deductible items, MOF officials said. Deduction rates vary, they said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique