The Central Weather Bureau at 8:30am yesterday issued a land alert for Typhoon Malakas, with the second typhoon to affect Taiwan this week expected to bring strong winds to eastern and northern parts of the nation.
At press time last night, Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City, Yilan and Hualien counties had announced a typhoon day for today, canceling school and work.
At 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 264km east of Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春), moving west at 21kph, the bureau said.
Photo: Yu Ming-chin, Taipei Time
The typhoon is likely to move closest to Taiwan today and the eye could even make landfall on the northeast coast, according to the latest projections of the typhoon’s course.
The bureau urged people in Hualien and Taitung counties to take precautions against storm damage.
Malakas arrived just two days after Typhoon Meranti barreled across southern Taiwan, bringing the strongest gusts the region has seen in decades and some flooding.
According to the latest estimate released by the Council of Agriculture yesterday, the nation sustained at least NT$685 million (US$21.62 million) in agricultural losses from Typhoon Meranti.
The figure rose from an estimate of NT$600 million in losses released by the council on Thursday.
Though the eye of the storm did not make landfall in Taiwan, passing through the Bashi Channel to the south, Meranti’s powerful winds and heavy rains pounded southern Taiwan on Wednesday, leaving one person dead and 51 injured.
Photo: CNA
It also wreaked havoc on the region’s farms.
The council said in its latest update that Kaohsiung’s farmers were hardest hit by the storm, sustaining at least NT$464 million in losses, or 68 percent of the national total.
Pingtung County suffered NT$180 million in losses, or 16 percent of the total, followed by Penghu County with NT$45.94 million in losses and Taitung County with NT$21.47 million in losses, the council said.
Photo: CNA
Crop damage accounted for most of the losses, according to the council, with 7,456 hectares of farmland and NT$573 million worth of crops damaged.
Guava growers took the biggest hit, suffering crop losses of NT$247.64 million and damage to 1,602 hectares of farmland, council data showed.
Farmers of dates, bananas, wax apples and tomatoes also sustained heavy losses, the statistics showed.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Damage to agricultural facilities and buildings was also heavy, totaling more than NT$105 million, according to the latest estimate.
In Taitung County’s Aboriginal Hongye Village (紅葉), the hometown of the legendary Hongye Teenage Baseball Team, about 30 to 40 houses were buried in a landslide caused by Typhoon Meranti. Residents had already been evacuated.
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