Seventeen people were injured and more than 460,000 households lost power as Typhoon Matmo pummeled the nation with torrential rainfall and strong wind, the Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) said yesterday.
Statistics from the center showed that six of the injuries were reported in Taipei, four in New Taipei City, two each in Greater Taichung and Greater Tainan and one each in Chiayi, Taitung and Yunlin counties.
Most of those hurt had been hit by felled trees or objects blown by the strong winds.
Photo: Huang Meng-ching, Taipei Times
About 460,000 households lost power during the typhoon, the majority in New Taipei City and Yunlin, Hualien and Taitung counties. At press time last night, about 65,000 households were still without power.
Close to 6,000 residents in 15 counties were forced to evacuate, with 2,268 staying in shelters.
About 6,700 households had no water, and by 7pm water authorities had yet to resume supplies to 900 households in Yilan and Hualien counties.
Photo: AFP
More than 2,200 households nationwide lost landline connections. Mobile phone communications were also affected after about 800 base stations were damaged.
Torrential rainfall disrupted both air and ground transport. More than 200 domestic flights were canceled and 115 international flights were either canceled or delayed.
The Taiwan Railways Administration canceled all express trains between Hualien and Taitung as well as between Greater Kaohsiung and Taitung, departing before 6pm because of landslides.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
The Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp reduced its schedule, dispatching just two trains every hour that stopped at all stations.
As of 6pm, landslides had been reported on several highways, including the Suhua Highway.
According to the Central Weather Bureau, Matmo made landfall in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱) at 12:10am and left Taiwan proper via Changhua County at 4:20am.
Photo: Tung Chen-kuo, Taipei Times
While all counties nationwide had declared a typhoon day, canceling school and work, meteorologist Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) said that only about one-third of the counties met the standards for such a cancelation.
Taoyuan, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties met the standards to cancel work and classes based on the wind information provided by the bureau, while Taipei, New Taipei City and Keelung barely met the standards.
However, bureau forecaster Hsieh Ming-chang (謝明昌) said that the bureau is obligated to provide local governments with weather forecasts or observation statistics to help them make decisions.
“Disaster prevention was also one of the important factors that influenced local governments in making the decision,” he said.
A weakened Matmo had moved close to China’s Fujian Province last night.
As of 5pm, Taiwan proper as well as Penghu County were no longer within the radius of the storm.
Hsieh said that the bureau could lift both the land and sea alerts for Matmo before midnight last night, but he warned mountainous areas in central and southern Taiwan could see heavy rainfall today.
Bureau statistics showed that Sioulin Township (秀林) in Hualien County topped the nation with accumulated rainfall of 657mm between 12am on Tuesday and 7:30pm yesterday, but Taoyuan District (桃源) in Greater Kaohsiung ranked first in the nation with 544mm of rainfall yesterday alone.
Chances of rain remain high nationwide today, though the rainfall should ease as the typhoon moves away, the bureau said.
“From what we have seen, there is no specific system that would affect the nation before Sunday,” Hsieh said.
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