Tropical Storm Danas’ threat to Taiwan proper appears to be diminishing, as its projected path is moving away from the east coast, but the center and south of the island should brace for rain being brought by another low-pressure system, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
The bureau issued sea alerts for Danas at 11:30pm on Tuesday and 11:30am yesterday.
It had previously forecast that the storm would make landfall on the southeast coast, move across the nation and proceed to China.
Photo: Wang Chin-yi, Taipei Times
However, as of 7pm last night, Danas’ center was located 360km southeast of Pingtung County’s Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and the storm, with a 150km radius, was moving northwest at 17kph.
Bureau forecaster Huang Treng-shi (黃椿喜) said the storm’s skirt had reached the Bashi Channel, threatening Hualien and Taitung counties.
Danas’ structure split when it moved close to the Philippine island of Luzon on Tuesday night, Huang said.
The lower, stronger system remains the core of Danas, while the higher system moved to waters west of the Philippines and could develop into a tropical depression today, which might bring heavy to extremely heavy rainfall to central and southern Taiwan as the storm moves toward the nation, the bureau said.
Chances that Danas would move along the east coast of Taiwan toward the north are higher, it added.
The east coast is likely to see more rainfall early today, while between this afternoon and tonight, the west coast would also have rain due to a low-pressure system arriving from the west of the Philippines, the bureau said.
The bureau has issued a torrential rain and gust warning for Yilan, Hualien, Taitung counties and the Hengchun Peninsula in Pingtung County.
Accumulated rainfall in those areas as well as mountainous areas in Kaohsiung and Tainan could reach 500mm by midnight tomorrow.
Uni Air and Mandarin Airlines yesterday announced changes to today’s domestic flight schedules.
Uni Air has canceled all of today’s flights from Taipei International Airport (Songshan) to Taitung or Hualien.
Other flights departing from Songshan after 4pm would also be canceled, while those leaving from Taichung International Airport after 6pm would be canceled.
Some flights departing from Tainan or those from Kaohsiung to Penghu are to take off early, the airline added.
Mandarin Airlines has canceled its flights between Songshan and Taitung as well as between Kaohsiung and Hualien.
Other flights departing from Songshan after 2pm and those leaving from Taichung after 6pm would also be canceled.
Taipei, New Taipei City and Keelung announced last night that offices and schools would be open as usual today.
Taitung County said schools and offices on Green Island (綠島) and Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) would be closed starting at 6pm.
The Ministry of National Defense has placed more than 30,000 troops on standby for disaster response and relief, after establishing a disaster response center to coordinate with the Central Emergency Operation Center.
Additional reporting by staff writer with CNA
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