County and city governments yesterday announced closures of offices, schools and roads as Typhoon Doksuri approached Taiwan.
The Central Weather Bureau last night issued torrential rainfall warnings for Pingtung, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, and an extremely heavy rainfall warning for New Taipei City, Taichung and Nantou County.
The Taitung County Government first announced on Wednesday afternoon that weather conditions met its guidelines for closing offices and schools for today.
As of 9pm last night, the Web site of the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration showed that Tainan, Kaohsiung, Hualien, Penghu and Pingtung have also closed offices and schools for today, while Kinmen County has ordered offices and schools closed in the afternoon.
The Hsinchu County Government said that tour bus route No. 8, which runs on scenic mountain roads in Wufong Township (五峰), would not be in service today.
It added that it might also suspend services of express bus lines Nos. 1, 5, 6, 7 and 8, as well as the tourism lines Nos. 1, 2 and 6.
Photo: Johnson Liu, AFP
County residents should contact Champion Transportation Co (金牌客運有限公司) and Yosemite Bus Inc (科技之星交通股份有限公司) for further information on bus lines, it said.
The Directorate-General of Highways announced that it would seal off a section of Provincial Highway No. 24 in Pingtung County from Dewen (德文) to Shenshan Township (神山) in anticipation of potential landslides.
The section would reopen at 8am tomorrow, it said.
The section is the only road in or out of Wutai Township (霧台).
Wutai Mayor Dralrausu Pacekele yesterday told the Central News Agency that the township has 14 days of food and should be able to ride out the storm.
The Pingtung County Government said that the residents of Adiri Village (阿禮), the highest-altitude village in the county, had been evacuated on Tuesday, while the residents of Karamumudisane Village (佳暮) were evacuated yesterday.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration yesterday afternoon announced the grounding of all 246 domestic flights today.
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