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Thousands flee as rains pound Yilan
LOCAL TIME:
In the past, county or city governments have decided whether to declare typhoon days, but this time the decision was left up to individual townships
By Shih Hsiu-chuan
STAFF REPORTER, WITH AGENCIES
Tuesday, Oct 06, 2009, Page 1
The government evacuated more than 6,700 villagers as Tropical Storm Parma lingered off the southern coast yesterday, bringing heavy rains that caused landslides.
The evacuations, some of them forced, took place in Yilan, Hualien, Nantou, Pingtung, Kaohsiung and Taitung counties as fears mounted that downpours could cause mountainsides to collapse.
At 9:15pm, Parma was 250km southwest of Oluanbi (鵝鑾鼻) and continued to hover in the Bashi Channel, which separates Taiwan and the Philippines. The weather system, which packed gusts of up to 101kph, was downgraded to a tropical storm earlier in the day.
Forecasters at the Central Weather Bureau said that Parma would linger southwest of Taiwan for one or two days, and that its outer bands, coupled with the prevailing northeasterly monsoon in the region, could continue to bring heavy rains to eastern and northern Taiwan.
Although Parma has not made landfall on Taiwan, the nation has experienced heavy rain in the last two days. Yilan County’s Sansing Township (三星) bore the brunt of the storm and was drenched with 700mm of rain over 36 hours.
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Two men wait out the storm in their flooded house in Dongshan, Yilan County, yesterday.
PHOTO: SAM YEH, AFP
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Many schools and offices in Yilan were closed yesterday as rains submerged roads, houses and rice paddies.
“It’s the first time my home has ever been flooded,” said Hsueh Chin-sheng, a resident in Yilan’s Dongshan Township (冬山), where flooding of about 500mm was recorded.
“The rain was so heavy. It was as if someone was deliberately dumping water on you,” Hsueh said.
“The accumulated rainfall in Yilan County increased to 454mm in 24 hours,” Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) Deputy Commander Frank Fan (范良銹) said.
Yilan County Commissioner Lu Kuo-hua (呂國華) announced at 8am yesterday that elementary schools and junior high schools would be closed yesterday afternoon and left the decision on whether to cancel work to township chiefs, which caused public complaints.
Initially, nine of Yilan’s 12 townships decided to suspend work, but later all 12 townships declared yesterday a typhoon day.
In the past, the county or city government decided whether to declare typhoon days, but the Executive Yuan said that townships could make their own decisions this time.
The CEOC said Sansing decided at midnight on Sunday to cancel school yesterday and Dongshan Township made a decision at 7:15am to follow suit.
The Yilan County Government made the cancelation announcement at 8am.
The county government last night also declared today a typhoon day, canceling work and classes.
Fan yesterday called on people living in low-lying areas in Taipei County’s Sinjhuang City (新莊), Shulin City (樹林), Jhonghe City (中和), Yonghe City (永和) and Gongliao (貢寮), Rueifang (瑞芳), Shuangsi (雙溪), Wanli (萬里) and Jinshan (金山) townships to stay vigilant because accumulated rainfall had approached or exceeded alert levels.
Authorities have also heightened alerts for certain rivers, urging nearby residents to keep a close eye on the water level.
Rivers and streams on red alert were in Yilan County’s Sansing, Dongshan and Datong (大同) townships.
A yellow alert was declared for streams in Taipei County’s Rueifang and Wanli townships, Yilan County’s Nanao (南澳) and Yuanshan (員山) townships, Taitung County’s Dawu (大武), Guangfu (光復) Sioulin (秀林), Wanrong (萬榮) and Shoufeng (壽豐) townships, and Hualien County’s Fongbin Township (豐濱).
The CEOC has set up a hotline, (02) 8196-6999, for emergency calls.
However, Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), who serves as commander of the center, said members of the public who require help should first dial the regular 119 emergency number and use the center’s hotline only when the 119 line is engaged or disconnected.
In order to avoid jamming emergency lines, the minister suggested that the public report disasters to local borough or village chiefs who will compile the information and relay it to emergency centers operated by local governments.
Meanwhile, the captain and two crew members of a Panama-registered cargo ship named Eufonia, which sank off Taiwan’s Penghu island chain on Sunday afternoon, were rescued yesterday by marine search and rescue personnel from Taiwan and China, but 11 other crew members remained missing, the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau said yesterday.
The bureau said it received calls for help from the ship at 5:25pm on Sunday and immediately asked the search command center under the Executive Yuan to launch sea and air rescue operations.
The center dispatched military rescue helicopters to the area, while rescue helicopters and two patrol boats were also sent by the Ministry of the Interior and the Coast Guard Administration, the bureau said.
The ship’s captain, who is from Myanmar, was rescued by a Chinese ship around 9am yesterday, while two crew members from Indonesia were saved by Taiwanese vessels and were sent to a hospital in Chiayi County later yesterday.
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