Extremely heavy rainfall brought by the southwest monsoon led to flooding in several locations in northern Taiwan yesterday, disrupting the railway system and affecting close to 5,000 passengers.
Flooding was reported in Taoyuan’s Dayuan (大園), Guanyin (觀音) and Sinwu (新屋) districts, as well as in Hsinchu County’s Jhubei City (竹北) and Hukou Township (湖口).
The height of the floodwater at one point reached 70cm in Dayuan District. In Hukou Township, the floodwater inundated an underground pass, with the floodwater surging to 30cm.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
Flooding also affected rail services, with the floodwater covering the tracks of the section between Hsinchu Station and Siangshan District (香山). The floodwater also covered both sides of the tracks on the section between Beihu (北湖) and Hukou Township.
The firm resumed normal operations on the Hsinchu-Sianghshan section by 1:15pm, before the Beihu-Hukou section became fully accessible at 2:12pm.
According to the railway operator, the flooding on the tracks delayed 26 trains and affected approximately 4,850 passengers.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
Taoyuan International Airport Corp said that a brief power outage occurred at Terminal Two of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday morning, because the electrical system tripped following the activation of all the water pumps at the airport to quickly discharge the floodwater.
The power failure lasted about five to 10 minutes, the company said.
Meanwhile, water was leaking into Terminal One and Terminal Two in several places.
Neither the water leaks nor the power outage disrupted operations at the airport, the company added.
The heavy rainfall caused the company to be on full alert yesterday after flooding on June 2 had severely disrupted operations.
Meanwhile, the government reported agricultural losses topping NT$11.88 million (US$366,407) due to the rainfall brought by the monsoon.
Yunlin County suffered NT$6.05 million of losses, the highest among all the cities and counties in the nation. It was followed by Tainan and Chiayi County, which lost NT$3.06 million and NT$2.57 million respectively.
Statistics from the Central Weather Bureau showed that Taoyuan’s Sinwu District had 199.5mm of accumulated rainfall at 6pm yesterday, the highest in the nation.
Hsinchu’s Hukou Township and Taoyuan’s Guanyin District were ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in terms of accumulated rainfall, reaching 169mm and 162.5mm respectively.
Among the top 10 locations with the highest accumulated rainfall, seven were in Taoyuan and three in Hsinchu County.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs also reported that the rainfall contributed to a total water inflow of 180 million tonnes to the nation’s reservoirs.
Bureau weather forecaster Hsieh Pei-yun (謝佩芸) said daytime temperatures in the north are forecast to rise to 35?C today as the frontal system gradually moves away from the nation, with the chances of afternoon showers being high.
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