Typhoon Sinlaku lashed Taiwan yesterday with powerful winds and heavy rains, disrupting flights and train services and cutting electricity supply to almost 50,000 households.
The Central Weather Bureau said that although the storm’s eyewall — the ring of towering thunderstorms surrounding the eye where the most severe weather occurs — could be damaged after hitting land, Sinlaku would maintain its structure and remain a serious threat.
The slow-moving typhoon, with a 250km radius, is not expected to completely leave Taiwan until Tuesday and will have the greatest impact sometime before this afternoon, said Fred Tsai (蔡甫甸), a senior forecaster at the bureau.
SOURCE: CENTRAL WEATHER BUREAU
During that period, rainfall in the northern, northeastern, eastern, central and southern parts of Taiwan could reach the “extremely heavy rain” or “torrential rain” categories, defined respectively as rainfall exceeding 130mm and 200mm over a 24-hour period, he said.
The mountainous areas in these regions could even see “extremely torrential rain,” which refers to rainfall exceeding 350mm in 24 hours, Tsai said, warning people across the country — particularly those in coastal and mountainous regions — to take precautions against flooding and mudslides.
The bureau said that from Friday until 4pm yesterday, accumulations had reached 591mm at Taipingshan (太平山) in Ilan County, 552mm at Lalashan (拉拉山) in Taoyuan County, 545mm in the Tonghou (桶後) area in Taipei County and 506mm at Siciousihshan (西丘斯山) in Hsinchu County.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
Tsai said the eye of the storm was likely to skirt the nation’s northeastern coast early today, resulting in a brief period of calm weather.
At 9:15 pm last night, Sinlaku was 70km east-southeast of Ilan, moving west-northwesterly at 6kph, packing maximum sustained winds of 173kph toward the eastern coast.
A 21-year-old man was reported injured in Taoyuan County after being hit by a collapsed fence while riding his motorcycle on Friday night.
Of the 86,108 households that lost electricity from the typhoon, power was restored in all but some 6,000 as of 5:30 pm yesterday, the Central Emergency Operation Center said.
The center said 249 groups of hikers had returned from mountains they were climbing before the typhoon arrived, while seven groups, with a total of 28 people, sought shelter in the mountains after hearing of the storm.
Most rail services and domestic flights were cancelled and all international flights departing from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport were suspended for seven hours from 14:30pm yesterday. Thousands of fishing boats were also sheltering in ports.
In response to the severe weather conditions, the Taiwan Railway Administration suspended all regular train services before midnight last night, while commuter trains ran as weather permitted. The Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp provided only limited service. All ferry services connecting Taiwan proper to Matsu, Ludao (綠島), Lanyu (蘭嶼), Little Liouciou (小琉球) and Penghu County were canceled.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LOA IOK-SIN
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS