Tropical storm Prapiroon swept across the northern part of Taiwan, unleashing torrential rains, while another storm posed a threat, weather forecasters warned yesterday.
"We are keeping a close eye on movement of the two storms, one to the north, the other to the south," a spokesman for the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.
"But we are still not sure if the storm Maria now lingering in the South China Sea will approach Taiwan after Prapiroon moves away [today]," he said.
PHOTO: LIAO RAY-SHANG, LIBERTY TIMES
The CWB predicted that last night's weakening in the Pacific would further cause Prapiroon to adopt a north-northwesterly tack, effectively reducing the duration and severity of the latest tropical storm to hit Taiwan's north coast.
Though forecasters predicted the storm was unlikely to cause as much damage as Super Typhoon Bilis, news of the storm caused schools to close, put the military on rescue alert and prompted official warnings for people to stay indoors after 8pm.
However, weathermen fear Maria could be sucked into the island after the edge of Prapiroon cuts across the northern part of Taiwan.
Prapiroon's center was about 320km east of Taipei at 7pm. With a radius of 250km, the storm was moving northwest at 19kph.
The bureau said the storm's winds averaged 100kph with gusts as high as 130kph.
The center of tropical storm Prapiroon is forecast to move to 360km north of Taipei at 5pm today.
The bureau urged residents in northern Taiwan and ships sailing off the island to be vigilant.
Maria was about 60km southwest of Hengchun, the most southern tip of Taiwan, at 2pm yesterday.
Despite being pounded by heavy rains yesterday afternoon, the Taipei city government's Bureau of Public Works (BPW) said no irregularities in water levels had been reported for any of the municipality's rivers.
At 6pm Monday the BPW closed down 25 of the city's 29 floodgates, and reported yesterday afternoon that the remaining four had been closed as well.
As for the 19 areas of the city classified as low-lying land, no incidences of flooding had been reported, though the BPW and borough wardens were closely monitoring conditions, fully prepared to deploy evacuation personnel at the first appearance of flooding.
Perhaps the most serious incident related to tropical storm Prapiroon so far has been mudslides occurring in the hilly area behind Wuhsing Street.
Despite putting a scare into residents, however, no serious injuries were reported. Authorities acted quickly to close off the scene and commence cleanup operations.
The storm comes just one week after Super Typhoon Bilis made landfall.
Bilis' powerful winds and torrential rains left 14 people dead -- including seven women and one child buried by mudslides -- and 108 people injured, 14 seriously.
Seven people were reported as missing.
Agriculture was hit hard by Bilis, suffering more than NT$4 billion damage as the storm ripped through the island.
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