The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) issued a sea warning for Tropical Storm Kai-Tak at 2:30pm yesterday, warning boats operating on the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines to be on the alert. As of 5:30pm, the storm’s center was 610km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻). It was moving northwest at 19kph.
The sea alert applies to coastal areas to the east and southeast of Taiwan, and includes the Hengchun Peninsula, Green Island (綠島) and Lanyu (蘭嶼, also known as Orchid Island).
Bureau forecaster Lin Hsiu-wen (林秀雯) said the storm will come closer to the nation’s southern region between tonight and tomorrow morning. The storm’s circumfluence will increase the chances of heavy showers along the east coast today, she said.
Residents of Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as those in mountainous areas in southern Taiwan, must be aware of the potential for damage brought by extremely heavy or torrential rains. Based on the projected path of movement, the storm would not make landfall in Taiwan.
In related news, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake shook the nation at 6:55pm last night. The epicenter was in Sioulin Township (秀林), Hualien County. The depth of the quake was 21.5km.
The quake was felt at an intensity of five in Nanshan (南山), Yilan County, the bureau said.
The earthquake was felt at an intensity of two in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) and one in other areas of Taipei.
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,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
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