The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) issued a land warning for Typhoon Parma in the Hengchun Peninsula yesterday and said the storm would bring strong winds and heavy rain as it made a slow approach north.
The weather system, with winds gusting up to 155kph, was 270km south of Oluanbi (鵝鑾鼻) as of 9:15pm, moving slowly in a north-northwesterly direction, the bureau said.
“The typhoon is forecast to move along the [northern] track until Monday night and then turn southwest,” CWB forecaster Hsiao Chia-sen (蕭家森) said. “In the next two to three days, the typhoon may move slowly and hover around the Bashi Channel.”
He urged residents of Hengchun Township (恆春) to take precautions against powerful winds and rains.
Residents in northern and eastern parts of Taiwan should also be on guard against heavy rains brought by the typhoon, he said.
Authorities suspended air and sea links with outlying islands yesterday and about 55 international flights were either canceled or delayed.
The Directorate General of Highways was closely monitoring 60 highways, including roads leading to Alishan and the Southern Cross-Island Highway.
The roads would be closed if necessary, it said.
Following criticism of the government’s handling of Typhoon Morakot and its aftermath, authorities started evacuations in four central and southern counties on Saturday after the weather bureau said the typhoon could bring torrential rains and trigger landslides.
Evacuation from potentially hazardous areas — especially those devastated by Morakot — continued as strong winds and rain brought by the approaching typhoon began in parts of the country yesterday. Evacuation of more than 400 residents in Laiji Village (來吉) and Alishan Township (阿里山) in Chiayi County began early yesterday morning after the bureau issued the first land warning for Parma.
Laiji, as well as several other villages in the region, was completely cut off in August as all the roads leading to the mountainous village were damaged by mudslides triggered by rains brought by Morakot. The roads remained damaged for nearly a month and the villages relied on helicopters and manpower for food and other necessities.
Fearing a repeat scenario, residents in those parts of the country most devastated in August were more eager to evacuate this time, police and rescue workers said, adding that many had already left before evacuation orders were issued.
At press time, 440 Laiji villagers were staying in temples and army bases in Chiayi. The Chiayi County Government said it planned to evacuate 2,629 people and had set up 30 shelters across the country.
Meanwhile, the Kaohsiung County Government said it had evacuated more than 700 people from potentially hazardous areas including Liouguei (六龜), Taoyuan (桃源), Maolin (茂林), Jiasian (甲仙) and Namasiya townships.
People were also evacuated from Nantou, Pingtung and Taitung counties.
Although most people cooperated with evacuation orders, a 92-year-old woman in Shenmu Village (神木), Nantou County’s Sinyi Township (信義), initially refused to leave.
“I don’t want to leave, I’ve never left the village, it’s safe here,” the woman told the village chief and rescue workers when they visited her house and asked her to leave.
She only agreed after hours of persuasion by her children and grandchildren.
The Ministry of National Defense also deployed some 200 soldiers from elite units to remote villages while putting 35,000 on standby.
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