The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) yesterday morning issued torrential rain warnings for mountainous areas in Chiayi County and Kaohsiung.
The bureau also issued extremely heavy rain warnings for low-lying locations in the two areas, as well as in Tainan, Pingtung County and mountainous areas of central Taiwan.
Heavy rain is categorized as accumulated rainfall of more than 80mm in 24 hours or more than 40mm of rainfall in one hour, while extremely heavy rain refers to more than 200mm in 24 hours or accumulated rainfall of more than 100mm in three hours, according to the bureau.
Photo: Tang Shih-ming, Taipei Times
As of 10am yesterday, 302mm of rain had fallen in the day in mountainous areas in Kaohsiung’s Taoyuan District (桃源).
Rain fell almost nonstop in mountainous areas of Kaohsiung on Thursday, damaging crops such as ginger and chayote, while preventing deliveries of bamboo shoots, the Namasiya District (那瑪夏) Office said.
The military activated its disaster response mechanism amid heavy rain and flash flooding across southern Taiwan.
Major General Wu Li-wen (武立文), spokesperson of the Fourth Operation District, said that the army deployed 32 soldiers, six trucks and equipment to help clear mud on mountain roads before noon.
Troops also assisted local government units in Liouguei (六龜), Jiasian (甲仙) and Shanlin (杉林) districts in Kaohsiung to evacuate residents from high-risk areas as a pre-emptive measure to ensure their safety, Wu said.
In Taichung, a brick building in Tanzih District (潭子) partially collapsed following several days of torrential rain and a magnitude 4.6 earthquake that struck at 5:41am yesterday. There were no reports of casualties.
In Chiayi County, rockslides caused by heavy rain and the earthquake damaged the Alishan forest railway at the 22km mark, leading to suspension of the rail service, the Forestry Bureau said.
Repairs are expected to take four working days, it said.
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