As Typhoon Dujuan bears down on Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said there are several important safety measures that people new to typhoons need to know in order to keep their loved ones safe and save time and trouble during a storm.
Typhoons are a yearly occurrence in Taiwan from June through October, and these storms create dangerous conditions that affect all of the nation’s residents.
The bureau recommends that prior to the arrival of a typhoon, people clear out debris to avoid flooding. It also suggests that people properly secure their personal items that remain outside during a storm, including: scooters, bicycles, plant pots, trash, recycling and anything else that can be picked up by strong gusts of wind.
Photo courtesy of the Sinjhuang District police precinct
Any loose item can become a dangerous flying hazard that could injure people or damage property, the bureau said.
The agency also advised the public to stock up on water — 2 liters per person per day — and food, and to charge up electronics in case of a power outage, adding that important documents should be stored in waterproof bags or cases to avoid potential water damage.
During a typhoon, the bureau advises people to remain indoors, adding that this is the simplest, yet most important, tip to remember, as gusts of wind often reach dangerous speeds that can cause trees, signs and windows to collapse and, on some occasions, even launch scooters into the air.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
If an evacuation order is issued due to flooding, the bureau advises people to head to their nearest shelter and make sure to carry personal identification. Shelters are labeled with street signs, it added.
The agency also suggests that residents stay away from windows and refrain from duct-taping windows, as taping can create larger shards of glass if windows break during a storm.
The public can check the bureau’s Web site (cwb.gov.tw) to get the latest news on transportation, work and weather conditions.
Photo: CNA
People need to make sure a storm has completely passed through an area before venturing outside, as a lull in the wind could just be the eye of the storm, which means there is still a significant amount of wind and rain to come, the bureau said.
The bureau also recommends that people look out for obstacles and debris while commuting; avoid mountainous areas because of possible mudslides and landslides; and check water quality and avoid drinking water that is murky or appears abnormal in any way.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching