Typhoon Lekima, which sideswiped northern Taiwan from late Thursday through early yesterday, and a strong earthquake on Thursday morning left two people dead, 11 injured and more than 3,000 homes without electricity overnight, the Central Emergency Operations Center said.
According to a situation report released by the center at 7pm yesterday, one of the casualties was a 64-year-old man who on Thursday fell to his death from a tree in Taipei while attempting to trim branches as a precautionary measure against the typhoon.
The other fatality was a woman in her 60s who was crushed by a fallen clothes rack, hangers and clothes at her house in New Taipei City when a magnitude 6 earthquake struck northeastern Taiwan, the report said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
An initial investigation found that she might have been knocked unconscious after being hit by the metal rack and hangers, and then suffocated under more than 100kg of clothes that smothered her face, it said.
Of the nine injuries, five happened in Taipei and two each in Yilan and Hualien counties, it added.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said that it was working around the clock to restore electricity to about 1,300 households after Typhoon Lekima caused blackouts in 80,457 homes.
Photo: CNA
As of 7pm yesterday, 1,333 households still did not have electricity, the state-run utility said, adding that 800 workers had been deployed to resolve the issue.
The areas affected by the blackout are in Taoyuan, as well as New Taipei City’s Tamsui (淡水), Jhonghe (中和) and Tucheng (土城) districts, Taipower said.
Lekima, the ninth Pacific typhoon this year, was about 270km north-northeast of Taipei as of 7pm yesterday, Central Weather Bureau data showed.
It was moving northwest toward China at 15kph, packing maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts of up to 209kph, the bureau said.
The bureau lifted its land warning for Lekima at 8:30pm yesterday.
Meanwhile, the amount of rainfall was expected to increase from yesterday evening through today, concentrated in mountainous areas in southern Taiwan and leading to the possibility of landslides, the center said.
The quality of water could be temporarily affected in Taipei, New Taipei City and central Taiwan, it added.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique