The southwest braced for strong winds and rain brought by Tropical Storm Haitang yesterday afternoon, less than 24 hours after Typhoon Nesat pummeled the nation, injuring 111 people.
According to the Central Weather Bureau, Haitang’s eye made landfall in Pingtung County’s Fonggang (楓港) at 4:40pm and was moving northwest at 12kph.
It was the first time since 1958 that two tropical storms made landfall in Taiwan within 24 hours.
Photo: The Taiwan Military News Agency via EPA
The bureau projected that Haitang would move across the southeast and the central mountain range before reaching the west coast.
Residents in Nantou, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as counties south of Chiayi, were on high alert for damage.
Although Haitang is to gradually weaken into a tropical depression, the bureau said that the southwest monsoon induced by the storm would continue to bring rain nationwide until Thursday.
Bureau statistics showed that both Nesat and Haitang have contributed to significant rainfall nationwide.
As of 6:15pm, Jiadong Township (佳冬) in Pingtung County had the highest accumulated rainfall of 640mm, followed by Taipingshan (太平山) in Yilan County (487mm) and the area south of Tianchi (天池) in Kaohsiung County (407mm).
Apart from Jiadong, heavy rains caused flooding in seven other townships in Pingtung County, which has suffered the most damage caused by the storms.
As of 7pm, the Central Emergency Operations Center reported that 111 people had been injured since Saturday.
About 1,300 people remain in shelters, it said, adding that power has yet to be restored to about 52,000 households.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration said that 267 domestic flights were canceled yesterday, while 138 international flights were canceled and 101 were either delayed or postponed.
The Maritime Port Bureau also reported that 163 shipping services were canceled yesterday and that 104 shipping services would be canceled today.
The Taiwan Railways Administration said the operation of the Alishan Forest Railway would be canceled for today.
As of 5pm, agricultural losses were estimated at NT$171.89 million (US$5.67 million). Yilan County, where Nesat made landfall, shouldered 68 percent of the loss.
It was followed by Pingtung County (24 percent), Hualien County (3 percent), New Taipei City (2 percent) and Taitung (1 percent).
The three most severely damaged crops were green onions (159 hectares), guavas (125 hectares) and bananas (233 hectares).
Nesat also damaged 199 schools nationwide, with the cost estimated at NT$17.8 million, data released yesterday afternoon by the Ministry of Education showed.
The highest percentage of schools reporting facility damage was in Yilan County, with 75 schools in need of repairs, followed by 66 schools in Taipei and 29 in New Taipei City.
Additional reporting by CNA
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS