With the center and south of the nation still reeling from a tropical depression system that has hovered above Taiwan since Thursday, the combination of a monsoon trough and the southwest airstream is expected to bring more rain this week.
As of noon yesterday, the death toll from the flooding stood at seven, with 116 people injured and 599 people in shelters, statistics from the Central Emergency Operation Center showed.
Agricultural losses caused by the flooding are estimated to have reached at least NT$563.11 million (US$18.35 million) as of 5pm, while repairing damage to schools and other buildings is expected to cost NT$157 million, the center said.
Photo: Wang Han-ping, Taipei Times
From today to Wednesday, chances of showers or thundershowers would be high in the nation’s center, south and southeast, the Central Weather Bureau said, adding that torrential to extremely torrential rainfall is likely.
The rest of the nation could also expect showers or thundershowers, with the possibility of heavy rainfall, it said.
The weather would remain unstable for the next few days, the bureau said, adding that people should be alert for landslides and quickly rising river levels, especially in low-lying areas.
Photo courtesy of the Chiayi County Government
Due to the southwest airstream, coastal areas nationwide could see strong winds measuring level 8 to level 10 on the Beaufort scale, it said.
The extended forecast predicts rain will ease nationwide on Thursday and Friday, when a Pacific high-pressure system is expected to strengthen and the southwest airstream to weaken slightly, the bureau said.
However, chances of showers or thundershowers would remain high nationwide, it said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Former bureau Weather Forecast Center director Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said in his online blog that the tropical depression system that hovered above the nation last week arrived in China’s Hangzhou Bay yesterday, while the front end of the southwest airstream moved to the south of the Taiwan Strait and the Bashi Channel, which led to the increase of rain in Taitung and Pigtung counties.
Earlier in the day, the emergency center said that water levels were receding in the 1,222 flooded areas, with the exception of nine areas in Chiayi County and one in Tainan, where floodwaters were expected to drop later yesterday.
During a visit to the emergency center, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said the authorities and the public should begin disinfecting and sterilizing affected areas to prevent contagious diseases, and that farm animals that died in the flooding should be incinerated if necessary.
Photo: CNA
Lai gave the instruction after he was briefed by the Council of Agriculture on the number of farm animals that died in flooding in central and southern Taiwan.
About 1.4 million chickens, 500,000 ducks, 200,000 geese and 7,000 pigs reportedly died in the flooding, emergency center statistics showed as of noon.
The council should know the number of farms where livestock was affected, Lai said, adding that it should assist the Ministry of National Defense in removing the carcasses.
The council should replicate its experience with avian flu by placing the carcasses in sealed bags before sending them to incinerators, Lai said.
As dengue fever cases have been reported in Taichung, Taipei and New Taipei City, government agencies should disinfect areas affected by the floods to prevent the mosquito-borne disease from spreading, Lai said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) visited Chiayi County’s Budai Township (布袋) again yesterday for the second time in two days.
She promised to instruct water resource departments to address the flooding and reminded residents to take precautions against further rain.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
RSS