The death toll from Tropical Storm Nari climbed to 74 yesterday after it caused the worst flooding in a century in northern Taiwan, the National Fire Administration said. It also left 208 injured and 22 missing nationwide.
The fire administration said that 41 people died in Taipei City and Taipei County while other deaths were reported in Keelung City, Chiayi County, Miaoli County and other areas of the country. Most of the victims were either washed away by floods or buried in mudslides which toppled their homes.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The storm carved a trail of destruction in the capital, inundating hundreds of homes and several thousand office buildings as well as flooding the multi-billion-dollar mass rapid transit system, forcing its closure.
The suspension of the MRT, except for the Mucha Line, which is constructed entirely above ground, affected some 600,000 commuters, as business, government and schools re-opened yesterday after a two-day suspension because of Nari.
Even though the city government provided back-up commuter buses, serious traffic jams blocked morning rush-hour traffic in Taipei yesterday. The situation was further aggravated by the failure of many traffic lights.
Taipei City Deputy Mayor Ou Chin-der (
"As the system is seriously flooded, it will be unable to resume full operations for half a year," he said.
Taipei Railway Station was underwater and basement parking lots in scores of buildings in the capital were also flooded.
About 4,130 buildings, 80 percent of them in Taipei City, were damaged after their basements and lower levels were flooded.
The defense ministry said that 15,920 soldiers had been deployed to help in rescue and clean-up operations. About 400,000 households suffered power outages, while water supplies to nearly 1 million homes were cut off and 410,000 telephone lines were left out of order, the fire administration said.
Heaps of waterlogged garbage were dumped on Taipei street corners and the stench of rotting food, thrown out of refrigerators left without power for days, filled the air.
A total of 186 schools were inundated by floodwaters, most of them in northern Taiwan, with some closed down for a third day yesterday.
Academia Sinica, the country's top state-owned research institute, also suffered unprecedented losses, with officials saying that some research may have been set back up to 10 years due to damage wrought by floods and blackouts.
The Central Weather Bureau said Nari had dumped up to 1,257 millimeters of rain on some northern areas in 51 hours from midnight Sunday, when it was categorized as a typhoon.
The huge volume of rainfall has not been matched in the past century, the bureau said.
Although Nari brought less rainfall to southern Taiwan, it brought about 775mm and 743mm of rainfall to Chiayi and Tainan Counties, respectively, as of yesterday afternoon. Both amounts are the highest recorded for the two counties in the last decade.
Nari's center was some 110km west of Kaohsiung at 5pm yesterday, packing gusts of up to 65kph and heading steadily west at a speed of 4kph.
Sea warnings for Nari remained in place, as forecasters said it still poses threats to the offshore island groups of Penghu and Kinmen. The storm was expected to completely leave the country by nightfall, the forecasters said.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland yesterday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy. The US delegation has begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Xinhua News Agency said. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun, but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks was not made public. Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim, but there is
The number of births in Taiwan fell to an all-time monthly low last month, while the population declined for the 16th consecutive month, Ministry of the Interior data released on Friday showed. The number of newborns totaled 8,684, which is 704 births fewer than in March and the lowest monthly figure on record, the ministry said. That is equivalent to roughly one baby born every five minutes and an annual crude birthrate of 4.52 per 1,000 people, the ministry added. Meanwhile, 17,205 deaths were recorded, resulting in a natural population decrease of 8,521, the data showed. More people are also leaving Taiwan, with net
RSS