About 700 Aborigines were trapped in Jinfong (金峰), Taimali (太麻里) and Daren (達仁) townships in Taitung County yesterday after heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm Meranti triggered landslides.
The Central Weather Bureau issued a warning about the storm, which has already brought torrential rains to the country’s southeast, an area that is still reeling from the devastation wrought by Typhoon Morakot in August last year.
The downpour caused landslides, cutting off a key road and isolating 700 villagers mostly belonging to an Aboriginal tribe, a Taitung County Government official said, adding that they did not face any immediate danger.
SOURCE: CENTRAL WEATHER BUREAU
The county government has evacuated more than 500 villagers from the area and ordered some schools and offices in the county closed, rescuers said.
As of 10:15pm, the center of Meranti was 70km southwest of Penghu. It was moving northward at 17kph, with a radius of approximately 100km.
Residents of Penghu and Kinmen, which are in Meranti’s projected path, were told to brace for the storm. The bureau also issued a sea alert to ships operating in the Taiwan Strait, the Bashi Channel and waters near Dongsha Island (東沙島).
By 10:22pm, the bureau's observation center in Jhihben (知本), Taitung County, had recorded the highest accumulated rainfall, 369mm. It was followed by observation centers in Taitung County's Shemagan (射馬干) and Hongyeshan (紅葉山), with accumulated rainfall of 341mm and 3330mm respectively. The 10 locations with the highest accumulated rainfall were all in Taitung.
The Council of Agriculture said eight villages in Taitung County’s Dawu (大武), Taimali, Jinfong and Daren townships were on red alert for mudslides. Twelve villages in the four towns were on yellow alert, as were 30 in Pingtung and Kaohsiung counties.
Many other villages on yellow alert in Pingtung and Kaohsiung were in areas heavily devastated by Morakot last year, including Sandimen (三地門), Majia (瑪家) and Wutai (霧台) townships in Pingtung, as well as Liouguei (六龜), Jiasian (甲仙), Namasiya (那瑪夏) and Taoyuan (桃源) townships in Kaohsiung.
The bureau has warned residents in the Hengchun Peninsula, southeastern and southern regions, as well as mountain areas in the east of the possibility of extremely heavy or torrential rain.
People living in eastern and central regions as well as in Penghu must also prepare for extremely heavy rain.
The bureau said heavy rain could also occur in northern and northeastern regions, as well as in Kinmen.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP
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