People in the nation’s south and southeast should be alert to possible damage caused by heavy precipitation as Typhoon Hagupit moves away from the nation and heads toward China, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday.
Although Hagupit did not make landfall, it disrupted domestic flights and shipping.
As of 6pm yesterday, 30 domestic flights were canceled and 45 were delayed, Civil Aeronautics Administration data showed.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
International flight services were not affected by the typhoon, the data showed.
The Port and Maritime Bureau said that 43 ferry services were canceled, including those between Keelung and Lienchiang County, and Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Taitung.
Hagupit was upgraded from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 5pm yesterday, but it is moving away from Taiwan and heading toward China, bureau weather forecaster Hsieh Pei-yun (謝佩芸) said.
As of 8:30pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 200km north of Keelung, moving northwest at 22kph, the bureau’s data showed.
The maximum wind speed reached 119kph near the center, with the radius expanding to 100km, the data showed.
Wind speeds at Pengjia Islet (彭佳嶼) and Green Island (綠島) reached Level 11 on the Beaufort scale, and Level 10 at Orchid Island and New Taipei City’s Bitoujiao (鼻頭角), Hsieh said, adding that sea waves could surge to 2m to 4m high today.
The bureau was expected to lift the sea warning at 11:30pm yesterday if the typhoon stayed on course.
Between 12am and 5pm yesterday, Taoyuan’s Dayuan District (大園) had the highest accumulated precipitation at 250mm, the bureau’s data showed.
It was followed by Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) at Yangmingshan National Park and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), with accumulated rainfall reaching 220mm and 162.5mm respectively.
The hourly rainfall in Tamsui and Taipei’s Shilin (士林) and Beitou (北投) districts also exceeded 90mm, the data showed.
Although the typhoon is moving away, Hsieh said that a south wind would bring rain to the nation’s south and southeast this morning.
Afternoon thundershowers are forecast for northern Taiwan and the mountainous areas today, she said.
According to the Central Disaster Response Center, as of 7pm yesterday, a total of 174 cases of flooding, fallen trees and road damage had been reported.
One person died and one was injured, it said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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