Typhoon Usagi came closest to Taiwan yesterday afternoon and is moving away from the nation in the direction of Hong Kong, but heavy rainfall is still expected to continue throughout today, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
As of 7:15pm, Typhoon Usagi had weakened slightly, with its center 140km southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻). The wind speed near its center was 48 meters per second in a radius of 280km and the typhoon was moving west-northwest at 19kph.
The bureau said that the land alert for Usagi may possibly be lifted as soon as this morning. The center of the typhoon is estimated to be about 510km west of Oluanpi by 5pm today.
Photo: CNA
However, the bureau warned that severe torrential rains may still hit areas including eastern Taiwan, Pintung County, Greater Kaohsiung and Nantou County, and torrential rains may fall in areas including northern Taiwan, Greater Taichung and Greater Tainan today.
People living in mountainous areas should especially watch out for landslides, falling rocks, mud flows or flash floods; and people living in low-lying areas should be prepared for flooding, it said.
It also warned that people should avoid heading to the ocean because waves and wind along the coastline are still very strong, and that strong wind gusts at level 10 on the Beaufort scale — 88kph to 103kph — are also likely to blow in the greater Taipei area.
Photo: Wang Hsiu-ting, Taipei Times
Seawater encroachment occurred at Jiupeng Village (九棚) in Pingtung County’s Manchou Township (滿州) yesterday morning, leading to the evacuation of about 20 households in the village.
As of 6:21pm yesterday, the Central Emergency Operation Center said a total of 3,075 people from 36 townships in seven counties have been evacuated from their homes, with 1,043 people settled at temporary shelters, due to the strong winds and heavy rainfall brought by Typhoon Usagi.
In addition, the center said six people have been injured in the typhoon, 45,618 households experienced power outages and 5,210 households were without running water.
The Water Resources Agency said according to the Central Weather Bureau’s 24-hour rainfall forecast for between 8am yesterday and 8am today, the average rainfall would be between 150mm and 300mm in Yilan and Pintung counties, 200mm to 400mm in Hualien and Taitung counties, and 300mm to 500mm on the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) in Pingtung County, so people living in low-lying areas should take precautionary measures against flooding.
A total of 712 water pumps have already been distributed in various areas, while another 65 pumps are ready to be deployed depending on actual flooding situations, the agency said.
It added that it plans to release water at 10 major reservoirs across the nation according to the rainfall, so the public should not engage in water activities in downstream areas close to reservoirs.
The domestically designed Teng Yun 2 drone passed development milestones over the weekend, flying for more than 10 hours straight and circling Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in the longest flight of an indigenous uncrewed combat aerial vehicle. Developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the Teng Yun 2, or “Cloud Rider” (騰雲二型), recorded its longest flight yet over the weekend, after a three-hour test flight last month, followed by five and seven-hour stretches in the air. The Teng Yun 2 No. 1812 departed from Chiashan Air Base in Hualien County at 6:46pm on Saturday and flew on a
A slew of new measures are to take effect on Friday, including nationwide bring-your-own-cup discounts. The new rule requires chain beverage shops to offer discounts of at least NT$5 (US$0.17) to customers who bring their own cups, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said. The policy would apply to more than 50,000 chain retail locations, including beverage shops, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and supermarkets. It aims to cut down on waste from single-use plastic cups, more than 2.2 billion of which were used in Taiwan in 2020, the agency said. For convenience, the EPA said it has asked retailers to display signs stating how
TIMING: 'The CHIPS Act funding is crucial for us. In other words, if the act’s passage is delayed for too long, we will certainly need to adjust,’ chairwoman Doris Hsu said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) plans to start construction on a US$5 billion wafer fabrication facility in Texas in November, after passage of the US$52 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act. The fab would be the largest of its kind in the US and one of the largest in the world, with a monthly capacity of 1.2 million wafers, GlobalWafers said, adding that the investment would be the first new fab in the US in more than 20 years and critical to closing a semiconductor supply chain gap. The world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier said the project, which
COUNTERING CHINA: ‘When democracies demonstrate what we can do ... I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,’ US President Joe Biden said US President Joe Biden rebooted his effort to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) after an earlier campaign faltered, enlisting the support of G7 leaders at their summit in Germany. The Build Back Better World initiative, named after Biden’s domestic spending and climate agenda, struggled to get off the ground because not enough G7 partners contributed financially when it was unveiled a year ago, people familiar with its lack of progress said. “When democracies demonstrate what we can do — all that we have to offer — I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,” Biden said during
RSS