Tropical Depression brought torrential rains to large parts of the country yesterday, causing landslides and flooding that blocked roads in mountainous areas, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.
A section of a 100m bridge in New Taipei City’s Chajiao Borough (插角) near Dongyanshan (東眼山) collapsed after several days of rain and flooding, trapping about 300 people in the borough, the New Taipei City Government said.
The bridge’s pillars had been reinforced with steel plates by the New Taipei City Maintenance Office, but continuous rain and recent earthquakes caused the collapse of a 5m section, the city government said.
The rain also caused landslides in Nantou County’s Renai Township (仁愛), cutting off transportation between Cueiluan (翠巒) and Rueiyan (瑞岩) villages, local authorities said, adding that a road between Wujie (武界) and Wanfeng (萬豐) villages had also been blocked by a landslide.
The Kaohsiung City Government said that it had ordered 2,035 people to evacuate from flood-prone mountainous areas, adding that a large section of the Minbaklu Bridge in Taoyuan District (桃源) had collapsed due to flooding, effectively cutting off the district.
The bridge was rebuilt in 2017 for more than NT$100 million (US$3.6 million at the current exchange rate) after the former structure was destroyed by Typhoon Morakot in 2009.
Photo courtesty of a member of the public via CNA
“That bridge is very important to the community, and visitors use it to reach the Yusui Hot Spring (玉穗溫泉),” a local resident said, adding that “minbaklu” means “hope” and “new life” in the Bunun language.
Pingtung County’s Wutai Township (霧台) recorded 693mm of rain between midnight Friday and 3:30pm yesterday, the highest accumulated rainfall in Taiwan, the CWB said.
The second-highest precipitation was recorded in Pingtung’s Majia Township (瑪家) with 648mm, followed by Kaohsiung’s Maolin District (茂林) with 542mm, the bureau said, adding that all three locations received more than 1m of rainfall over the past three days.
Photo: Tang Shih-ming, Taipei Times
Affected by flooding and landslides, 600 residents in Wutai and Majia had been evacuated, the CWB added.
The CWB said that its weather station on Alishan (阿里山) in Chiayi County at 12:40pm yesterday registered 422mm of rain during the previous 24 hours, while stations in Fencihu (奮起湖) and Lijia (里佳) townships reported 347mm and 302.5mm respectively.
The county also reported landslides, large rocks falling on roads, road collapses and sinkholes in 59 areas, the Chiayi County Government said.
Photo courtesy of a reader
Meanwhile, a rockslide, likely triggered by heavy rain, halted high-speed rail services between Miaoli County and Taichung.
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) sensors detected the rockslide in Miaoli at about 8am, the company said in a statement.
It later decided to suspend service in both directions, as it expected that debris on the tracks might pose risks, the firm said.
Photo courtesy of the armed forces via CNA
High-speed rail passengers departing from Taipei’s Nangang Station after noon and passengers departing from Kaohsiung’s Zuoying Station after 12:15pm had to take shuttle buses between Miaoli and Taichung, it said.
The railway operator did not provide a time frame for when service would be restored, but said that people can change or cancel their tickets without charge.
Lupit also forced the cancelation of flights and ferry services in Taiwan.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The Maritime and Port Bureau said that 39 scheduled ferries on four routes had been canceled due to hazardous sea conditions.
Civil Aeronautics Administration data showed that 25 domestic flights had been canceled through 2pm, while another six were delayed.
The CWB said the heavy rains had been caused by a combination of seasonal southwesterly winds and a system comprised of the former Tropical Storm Lupit, the center of which made landfall in Hsinchu and Miaoli counties in the morning.
Photo: Lin Kuo-hsien, Taipei Times
The CWB said it expects the rains to ease slightly today, before gradually tapering off tomorrow and on Thursday.
Additional reporting by Peng Chien-li, Tung Chen-kuo Wang Shan-yan and Huang Hsu-lei
Photo: Weng Yu-huang, Taipei Times
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS