With northern Taiwan residents still drying out from the floods brought by Typhoon Nari, many were worried yesterday over what havoc its successor might bring.
As of 9:20pm yesterday, the medium-strength Typhoon Lekima was moving in a northwesterly direction at 7kph, its center roughly 30km northwest of Taitung.
"Everybody is worried that the Taipei metropolitan area might well be flooded again," Wu Teh-jung (吳德榮), deputy chief of the Central Weather Bureau's forecasting center, said yesterday.
PHOTO: CHANG LI-KE, TAIPEI TIMES
"According to the up-to-the-minute forecast, the chances are quite slim. ... We've had less than 300mm of rainfall within Taipei City thus far."
Wu said occasional downpours were likely to continue in northern Taiwan until at least the end of today.
According to the weather bureau, Lekima had formed "concentric eyes" for roughly 30 minutes at roughly 5pm on Tuesday.
The phenomenon occurs only when a typhoon is idling and the storm, which then has two centers, fails to strengthen afterward.
But why a typhoon weakens after developing concentric eyes remains unknown.
The air surrounding Lekima brought heavy rain to the Taitung and Hualien areas before the storm made landfall last night.
In Taitung, a police officer and his sport-utility vehicle were washed over a bridge. The policeman was trapped on the roof of the vehicle for several minutes before colleagues came to his rescue.
Three fishermen are missing after their boat sank off Taichung in rough seas. A police helicopter rescued another two fishermen from the vessel, but rescuers added they feared the boat's missing Taiwanese skipper and two Chinese fishermen were dead.
"Heavy downpours will occur in the Taitung, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Tainan areas as Typhoon Lekima moves toward the northwest," Wu said.
"But after it hits the Taiwan Strait, the northern and eastern parts of Taiwan will be on the sheltered side, so the rain will gradually stop."
The Liwu and Shuilien Power Plants in Hualien were out of service yesterday afternoon due to minor flooding. In Hualien, Taitung and Pingtung, more than 5,600 households were without electricity as of press time last night.
The government of Hualien County had begun evacuating residents in Kwangfu, Jian, Hsincheng and Fuli townships.
The Central Cross-island and Suhua Highways were off-limits yesterday after rockslides blocked sections of both roads.
Hualien County authorities, responsible for the affected section of the Central Cross-island Highway, said the road wouldn't be accessible until Tuesday. The Suhua Highway was in the same situation, according to Ilan County officials responsible for the affected portion of that road.
Meanwhile, a cable TV station yesterday claimed that rainfall in northern Taiwan as a result of Lekima would by tomorrow break the record for a single typhoon in the past 400 years.
But the Central Weather Bureau said those claims information were inaccurate.
"We didn't even record our weather 400 years ago," Wu said.
So far this year, typhoons have killed more than 300 people in Taiwan.
In July, Typhoon Toraji -- - one of the deadliest to hit Taiwan -- killed about 200 people and caused more than US$173 million in damage.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has ordered his Cabinet to check if any government officials failed to take adequate flood prevention measures.
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