Typhoon Morakot slammed into Taiwan overnight, pounding the nation with strong winds and downpours. Southern Taiwan in particular was drenched with more than 1,500mm of rainfall that submerged houses and streets.
The typhoon made landfall in Hualien County late on Friday night, unleashing powerful winds that swayed high-rise buildings, and uprooted trees and road signs in many places. With a radius of 250km and packing maximum winds of 119kph, the typhoon had weakened considerably by the time the eye hit the Hualien coastline at 11:50pm on Friday and was downgraded to a tropical storm yesterday afternoon as it moved north-northwestward away from Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.
Forecasters, however, warned the public to guard against torrential rain, which they said would continue nationwide for days to come.
PHOTO: CNA
The torrential rain, coinciding with the monthly high tide along the coastline of southern Taiwan, triggered flooding in a number of areas.
At 9pm yesterday, Pingtung County’s Wei Liao Mountain (尾寮山) topped the nation with 2,051mm of rainfall since Thursday, the CWB said. Other areas in the county such as Chiatung (佳冬) and Wen-feng (塭豐) saw floods that reached two stories deep.
TV footage showed torrential downpours had submerged houses and streets in the county, cutting off electricity and phone services.
PHOTO: CNA
“The flood started this morning and the water is more than two stories high in most places,” said a policeman from Chiatung Township, one of the worst-hit areas in Pingtung. It is home to 10,000 people
Five major bridges in the county have been closed to traffic and roads leading to mountainous regions have also been closed because of landslides.
There was also flooding in many districts of Kaohsiung City, with the areas adjacent to Sizihwan (西子灣), Love River (愛河) and Chienchen River (前鎮河) heavily affected. The water level rose knee-high in some streets in the Chienchen District (前鎮).
Dozens of homes were flooded in Taimali Township (太麻里) in Taitung. Residents of five villages in Taimali evacuated their homes and 40,000 households had no power.
Mudslides were reported in mountainous areas in the counties of Nantou, Pingdong and Taitung, forcing the closure of some bridges during the storm.
At its peak strength on Friday, the storm caused power outages for 896,833 households and electricity grid workers had to brave strong winds and heavy rain to fix the power system, Taiwan Power Company said. At noon yesterday, 163,075 households were still without power, the company said.
The storm also wreaked havoc on air and sea transportation, forcing airlines and shipping companies to cancel all outbound flights and marine services until yesterday noon. By yesterday afternoon, about 80 percent of domestic and international flights had resumed.
A 67-year-old woman died late on Friday when she drove her motorcycle into a ditch during heavy rain in southern Kaohsiung County, the National Fire Agency said in a statement on its Web site.
A 47-year-old man slammed his car into a train in torrential rain in Ilan County late on Friday and died on the spot. Four people were missing and feared dead, the National Fire Agency said, adding that two were fishermen whose boat capsized off the coast of Pingtung County.
Another man who was fishing onshore in Taitung County fell into the sea and has not been recovered, the agency said. A villager, also in Taitung, set off on a fishing expedition early on Friday as the storm approached, but no one has been able to contact him since, it said.
National Taiwan Normal University yesterday issued a press release saying that a group of five people, two of its students and three alumni, who were scheduled to descend Dabajian Mountain (大霸尖山) yesterday, remained missing.
Two policemen were trapped on a power line pole for more than three hours when they tried to rescue residents of Taitung’s Taiho Village (太和), who were reportedly stuck in their houses because of flooding, the Central Disaster Emergency Operation Center said.
Before the approach of Typhoon Morakot, at least four counties had begun rationing water. But as of yesterday morning, Shihmen Reservoir in Taoyuan County, which was almost half empty last week, had to open its floodgates as Morakot had filled it up in just one day.
The Council of Agriculture (COA) said that at 3pm yesterday, the nation had sustained NT$832 million (US$25.4 million) in losses in crops, animal stocks, fish, forestry and agricultural equipment.
The highest loss came from crops, with bananas particularly hard-hit, the COA said, as more than 11,145 hectares of farmland had been hit by the typhoon.
Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Hualien counties met guidelines for the Agricultural Natural Disaster Relief Regulations (農業天然災害救助辦法), the COA said, adding that farmers in the county were eligible for cash relief funds and low-interest mortgages.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) said yesterday that tax payers could claim deductions for property damaged by Typhoon Morakot once they had proper documentation.
Property owners are eligible to file their tax deduction applications with local tax offices within 30 days and must attach detailed reports of the damage and legal verification of ownership, the MOF said.
Once the applications have been approved by tax officials, who are required to conduct on-site inspections, property holders and business owners can list their damaged commodities or products for tax deductions when they file their income or business tax returns next year, it said.
A wide range of personal property such as private cars, scooters, houses and land damaged by Morakot are included on the list of tax deductible items, MOF officials said. Deduction rates vary, they said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole